Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Copyrights vs. Patents

Author:Eric Kidd
Posted:8/31/2000; 1:32:03 PM
Topic:The Lie of "IP"
Msg #:20603 (In response to 20585)
Prev/Next:20602 / 20604

Dave writes:

I actually have a moderate view on this. Go talk to the people who are filing patents and using lawyers to stop other people from competing. Your analysis overlooks this. Rethink, perhaps, maybe you'll adopt a more friendly view towards innovators and leading-edge pushers who don't patent.

Intellectual property is all about tradeoffs.

In the big scheme of things, copyright is no big deal. The Grateful Dead let me copy their music. Metalica doesn't. Both viewpoints can co-exist, and musicians can still make music. If listeners prefer one viewpoint over the other, that's their choice.

Software patents are bogus because they affect other people's creative work. Jeff Bezos may not want to share his one-click software, and that's OK. But he also says that nobody else can write one-click software, and that's just plain rude. With the patent office issuing thousands of software patents a year, it's getting hard to write software.

Not all intellectual property is created equal. :-)

Cheers,
Eric

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