Aretae

The virtue of excellence

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Linky

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5 comments:

Alrenous said...

"Do you want to live in a world where only Apple is allowed to make phones with pinch-to-zoom capability (and dozens of other features) until 2027? I sure don’t."

Ah...but the argument is that without letting Apple have a monopoly on pinch-to-zoom, it won't exist at all, either now or in 2027.

I happen to think more things would exist than now in fact do, but I also think reasonable people can disagree on this.

October 26, 2011 at 11:45 AM
Aretae said...

I don't think reasonable people can disagree any longer...unless they're poorly researched.

IRL...Apple patents important features 1,2,6. Microsoft patents important features 3,4,8. Google patents feature 5, and buys Motorola which has feature 7. Then Apple, Google, Microsoft collude, and allow one another to make phones using their patents, but sue the pants off anyone else who tries to make a smartphone.

At least 3 of the features (1,3,5) are obvious...and were invented 4x separately, but only one of the inventors got to the patent office.

However, I do agree that Microsoft wouldn't exist as it does today without patents. To some extent, corporate goliaths in the tech industry are a result of patents. I do think people can honestly disagree on whether that's a good thing.

October 26, 2011 at 11:59 AM
Alrenous said...

Everyone reasonable does agree that the patent system is broken.

Not everyone agrees that the solution is to trash patents entirely.

The real solution is phase I trials. Stop arguing, just try it and see what happens. This is laughably impossible, so I know it's not about that for most arguers.

October 26, 2011 at 12:04 PM
Aretae said...

Truth, schmuth.

ALL existing power centers benefit MASSIVELY from monopoly-grants like patents. Of course phase 1 trials aren't on the table. It's contra- the interests of the corporatist state.

October 26, 2011 at 12:08 PM
drpat said...

Except we DO have phase 1 trials of an industrial country without patent protection.

One such trial is called China.

October 26, 2011 at 8:06 PM

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