By Joanna Pearlstein
This article is from the October
1, 2001, issue of Red Herring magazine.
Say you're Madonna. (Just say.) A
zealous fan with money to burn pilfers your DNA from a stray hair that
comes his way. Twenty years later, you see your clone dressed in black
lace singing "Burning Up" on MTV.
It might seem unlikely, but the San
Francisco-based DNA Copyright Institute (DNACI) thinks it's a legitimate
concern. In August, the company unveiled its service, which targets primarily
celebrities -- actors, athletes, and models -- who feel the need to prevent
unauthorized reproduction of their genetic maps.
Company officials say the advent
of cloning technology could lead to trading in celebrity DNA. Copyrighting
your genetic map will provide you with legal recourse in case that copyright
is infringed, says Andre Crump, the company's president and founder. The
odds that a clone would be created to copy a celebrity's career? "It's
not completely likely," says Mr. Crump. "What's more probable, and much
more possible, is that someone who's extremely attractive or intelligent
is cloned, and no one would know that person is a clone. We think that's
extremely likely."
WHOSE LINE IS IT, ANYWAY?
The DNACI is betting on a line in
the U.S. Copyright Act that states that copyright protection applies to
"original works of authorship." Rather than copyrighting DNA outright,
the company records the pattern of an individual's DNA, which Mr. Crump
says "is as original as you can get in human biology."
To copyright your DNA pattern, you
pay the DNACI $1,500 and have a doctor or a laboratory take a sample. Unless
customers request it, DNACI does not submit the DNA pattern to the U.S.
Copyright Office -- a repository for copyrighted material. "That's because
different people feel differently about DNA databases being used by government
and insurance companies," says Mr. Crump. "We're just maintaining confidentiality."
The company's Web site says, "Fortunately, [customers] do not have to proceed
with federal registration in order to guarantee copyright protection."
The Copyright Office begs to differ.
"The office has never registered a copyright claim in a person's DNA,"
says Robert Dizard, the office's staff director. "Copyright does not protect
a person's DNA, because it is not an original work of authorship." Mr.
Crump says he agrees, emphasizing the company's focus on DNA patterns.
But Mr. Dizard adds: "The only certificates of copyright registration that
have any legal status are certificates issued by the Copyright Office."
Mr. Crump isn't a lawyer or a scientist.
He's a former marketing executive -- an alumnus of Apropos Technology,
Citadon, and Sun Microsystems, among others -- who's also the author of
Everything I Know About Dating I Learned in Business School. Mr. Crump
says he's put less than $50,000 of his own money into the company and that
"the path to profitability is short. We see a very long and bright future
for this type of service." Madonna, Andre Crump is waiting for your call.
Write to joanna.pearlstein@redherring.com.
1997-2001 Red Herring Communications
Red Herring
October 12, 2001