Copyright Law and Your Health

I just had a nasty run in with a potential Dermatologist. To tell the truth their office didn't inspire me with confidence from the get go. As you'd expect in West LA, this glitzy office seemed to specialize in cosmetic treatments rather than skin health. Still, a doc has gotta pay outrageous rent and the cosmetic stuff probably pays the bills and allows them to get down to business. However, while filling out the paperwork and signing the usual forms when I ran across something new. This form had a preamble explaining that the doctors had put a lot of effort into developing their practice and had a reputation to protect. After a lot of mealy mouthed reassurances that singing the form below would protect me doctors and provide me a greater level of privacy than HIPAA provides, they dropped a bomb. In order to be seen by this clinic I had to sign over Intellectual Property Rights on any statement I might make about the clinic or its staff on any blog, forum or other other electronic medium to my doctors. In other words, if they treated me, they were going to own the copyright on anything I might say about them on any medium other than paper. According to an article at Ars Technica, this is growing trend in the US. Many of these forms are boiler plate from Medical Justice, an outfit claiming to protect physicians from frivolous lawsuits. I have no idea how sincere and well meaning this outfit might be, but if they are pushing a-priori restrictions on the expression of opinions, their aims immediately look illegitimate to me. This First Amendment Stuff matters to me. It matters a lot. I enlisted in the Army my junior year of high school in large part because I believed in the innate coolness of the constitution and I still keep a copy on my bookshelf. By way of disclaimer, my enlistment was declined at a very late state in the process after they reviewed my medical history so I never actually got to serve. On another level, this new practice pisses me the hell off. At its best copyright law protects artists and creative individuals of all kinds by letting them earn a living by participating an intellectual commerce that has created an immense worldwide economy. The existence of Sony Studios down the street attests to that fact. However, copyright can also be abused to restrain speech. These Medical Copyright agreements do exactly that. They ask the patient to forfeit one of their most basic individual rights in order to receive, what is for me with my Eczema, basic and necessary healthcare. Tony don't play that. I told them where to stick that form in just about so many words, When presented with such a form, stand your ground, tell them no and leave if they insist.  While I understand the problem of fraudulent and abusive reviews on forums and other social media, the answer is not to censor patients expressing sincere opinions.