As discussed on Slashdot (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/30/1336221), this is ridiculous.

A choice comment:
"From the about the award [captainhookawards.org] pages:
Biopiracy refers to the monopolization of genetic resources such as seeds and genes taken from the peoples or farming communities that have nurtured those resources. It also refers to the theft of traditional knowledge from those cultures.
And the page explaining why Google was nominated. [captainhookawards.org]

Nonetheless a recent internal video released from the Googleplex shows that the company are still very actively pursuing the goal of putting genomic information online for free.
So. Google is monopolizing genetic resources by putting genetic information online for free?

There are much better things to go after google for if you don't like them (*cough*censorhip*in*China*France*Germany*US*Unwar rented*Patents*cough) and far better companies to go after for biopiracy (What a stupid term).

The monopolization of genetic information is a serious issue – people are trying to do stupid things – like attempting to apply copy protection measures (both physical and legal) to life. Life attempts to copy itself & tradional copyright / patent laws should not apply.

Unfortunately, these awards look like shameless self-promotion rather then a serious attempt to tackle the problem."

"Biopiracy Award" is just another attempt at disinformation to mislead the public. Who showed these self-serving Luddites how to use a keyboard anyway?

well said Niraj Sanghvi.....

pacificdave: Not my own words (it was a comment on Slashdot), but I agree with them :)