[ti:'Net Neutrality,' Gene Patents Face Legal Setbacks in US] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Economics Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English [00:03.33]Economics Report. [00:05.19]Two rulings in the United States [00:07.75]could change how information [00:10.17]is controlled online and in our bodies. [00:15.02]On Tuesday, a federal appeals court [00:18.13]in Washington ruled that [00:20.00]current laws limit government power [00:23.36]over Internet traffic. [00:25.72]The court rejected an order [00:27.71]against America's [00:29.08]biggest cable company. [00:31.38]In two thousand seven, [00:33.43]officials ordered Comcast [00:36.23]to stop interfering [00:38.10]with file-sharing programs [00:40.34]used by its Internet customers. [00:43.45]Comcast said big files [00:46.06]slowed its network. [00:48.55]All three judges agreed that [00:51.47]the Federal Communications Commission [00:53.65]had no legal basis [00:55.89]to tell Comcast what to do. [00:58.75]The F.C.C. supervises [01:00.80]communications by radio, [01:03.17]television, wire, satellite and cable. [01:06.96]But its power over Internet [01:09.53]and wireless communications [01:11.77]has long been questioned. [01:14.19]Now, unless Congress [01:16.37]changes the law, network [01:18.49]providers can slow or [01:21.16]block services of competitors. [01:24.02]The decision comes just weeks [01:26.46]after the F.C.C. announced [01:31.01]its National Broadband Plan. [01:33.31]The aim is faster, [01:36.05]lower-cost connections [01:38.73]for almost all Americans. [01:41.15]The F.C.C. says the court [01:43.89]"in no way disagreed with [01:46.50]the importance of preserving [01:48.55]a free and open Internet." [01:51.60]The agency could seek new powers [01:54.52]to regulate Internet service [01:57.20]and enforce net neutrality. [02:00.62]That is the idea that all content [02:03.86]on the Web should be treated equally. [02:07.09]In a different case, a ruling last week [02:10.63]in New York has renewed debate [02:13.62]about who can "own" genetic information. [02:17.54]Myriad Genetics received patents [02:21.15]for methods to identify women [02:23.64]with genes that create [02:26.25]a high risk of breast cancer. [02:28.98]Patents involving the two genes [02:31.41]made Myriad the only company [02:34.46]able to offer the costly tests. [02:37.51]But federal Judge Robert Sweet [02:40.37]cancelled seven of twenty-three [02:43.17]patents related to the genes. [02:45.90]He said they violate the law [02:48.77]against patents for products of nature. [02:52.31]Yet companies and universities [02:55.48]often claim human genes [02:58.10]as intellectual property. [03:00.77]An estimated twenty percent [03:03.26]of human genes have been [03:05.93]patented in the United States. [03:08.23]Judge Sweet said the patent office [03:12.03]thinks DNA should be treated [03:14.70]like any other chemical compound. [03:17.87]The idea is that its removal [03:21.48]from the body and purification [03:24.47]makes it into something different [03:27.14]that can be patented. [03:29.38]The judge said many consider this [03:33.05]a "lawyer's trick" to avoid the ban [03:36.47]on the direct patenting of DNA, [03:39.65]but the result is the same. [03:42.13]Cancer activists and researchers [03:45.49]fought the patents. [03:47.17]Myriad is appealing the ruling. [03:50.34]And that's the VOA Special English [03:54.01]Economics Report, [03:55.76]written by Mario Ritter. [03:57.81]I'm Steve Ember.