Robert Gallo Snubbed by the Nobel Committee

The 2008 Nobel in Medicine, actually half a Nobel, has been awarded to the French researchers who discovered the AIDS virus. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier isolated the AIDS virus and then gave a sample to Robert Gallo's lab which then anounced that he had "discovered" it. From the American perspective the prize of discovery goes to who ever files the legal forms first. Public domain material has been copyrighted and therefore capture in the US. National anthems that have been in the public domain have been successfully copyrighted in the US. Folk songs have been copyrighted and then captured by unscrupplous music promoters, are there any other kind, this happened to the song St James Infirmary. In the case of AIDS the fight wasn't over the psychic benefit scientific discovery but the materials rewards of a patent on a medical test to detect AIDS/HIV.

Robert Gallo's loss of the Nobel makes me happy.