What Do you think of Bio-piracy?

Question

Biopiracy: the people of developing countries are strongly criticizing the companies of developed countries for their enclosure of the genetic resources, calling it "biopiracy". They are claiming that the pharmaceutical companies and nurseries of developed countries are developing medicines and seeds from the native species which they have been protecting and utilizing from long before and monopolizing the profits by acquiring patents. A strong criticism against there action is contained in the word "biopiracy" (piracy of biological resources). See:
http://lists.canonical.org/pipermail/kragen-fw/2001-February/000218.html

Answer 1

Biopiracy has its advantages and disadvantages..It can be used to devolop something that could benefit us all but on the other hand, greedy developers or financers may also take advanatage of such technology..I am including some info too:)

Practical aspects of biopiracy and bioprospecting
The complexities of biopiracy - an example
The classic Rosy Periwinkle case is a good example for how biopiracy cases are rarely as simple as they seem. Complicating factors include:

The Rosy Periwinkle, while native to Madagascar, had been widely introduced into other tropical countries around the world well before the discovery of vincristine. This meant that researchers could obtain local knowledge from one country and plant samples from another.
The locally known medical properties of the plant were not the same as the medical properties discovered and commercially used by Eli Lilly. The use of the plant as a cure for diabetes was the original stimulus for research, but cures for cancer were the most important results.
Different countries are reported as having acquired different beliefs about the medical properties of the plant.[5]
The role of bioprospecting in pharmaceutical research
Theoretically, pharmaceutical researchers could simply take thousands of plant samples and conduct a battery of tests on them to establish any useful medicinal properties. In practice, this is a time-consuming and financially inefficient method. The discovery of useful medicines can be significantly accelerated by taking into account indigenous biomedical knowledge found in the communities where the plants are native. Shamans may be asked to point out potentially useful plants and list their known properties. Typically such local knowledge has been built up over centuries or millenia. Modern pharmaceutical research can build on that local knowledge and achieve faster results.