[ExI] Problem with Pattents

[ABlainey at aol.com]

In a message dated 22/02/2008 05:52:53 GMT Standard Time, kanzure at gmail.com 
writes:


> 
> What would it mean if they were fundamentally wrong? Would you boycot 
> them? Would you stop inventing? Would you stop using them?

The equation: (first to think of it)+(has money for patent)+(jumps through 
right hoops) = must be paid by all (except the chinese). is just fundamentally 
wrong.
I much prefer:
(First to think of it)=(warm fuzzy feeling)+(better world)+(recognition

 I no longer use patents, but would never stop inventing. Apologies for the 
chinese snipe. However it is a valid point. How can we be competitive against a 
nation which generally ignores our patent laws when we are restricting our 
own productivity and trying to squeeze every dime out of each other?
My money is on Mr 'Super happy funtime widget maker' and his 1 billion+ 
friends.

> 
> > It has made me wonder what would happen if the patent system were
> > scrapped. As I see it, the immediate effect would be a whole bunch of
> > very cheap pharmaceuticals hitting the market. I also think this is
> > the only way to create a truly competitive market place, where only
> > the best quality products (or versions of) for a reasonable price
> > would survive.
> 
> Even the poor-quality products would survive in this information age. 
> Look at how many low quality websites are able to survive. A few bits 
> on a server somewhere, it doesn't take much. Scrapping the patent 
> system will not happen. Instead, perhaps we can work on some collective 
> way of bringing inventions into reality. I have been working on a 
> project off and on this week which might be a suitable introduction 
> platform (if there are any programmers which would like to collaborate, 
> contact me) -- I need to do some quick code cleanup and test a few 
> external APIs.
> 

Why would the poor quality products survive? Data is very different from 
Hardware. If the consumer has the choice of products he will go for the best 
quality he can afford.
Unless you are talking disposable rubbish items.

I Would be happy to help testing if It helps you, but my coding isn't worth a 
bean (far rustier than yours). So help would need to be in another form.


> > I can imagine it somewhat levelling the income levels of many people
> > as there would be many more companies in the world, with much flatter
> > structures. Not only that, but you would also be more likely to get
> > paid according to how much/how well you work, rather than how well
> > you can exploit others. I think this is probably a very timely
> > subject with the possibility of desktop production machines getting
> > closer and closer. Imagine a world where you can create anything you
> > want in a desktop nano machine, but have to swipe your credit card to
> > pay some corporation patent licence fees, just because they had the
> > resources to beat everyone to the patent office.
> 
> Design is something that anybody can do. Art, etc. And why are you 
> talking about income levels? When it comes to nanotech and fabricators, 
> you're generally talking post "money" economics since you're suddenly 
> able to basically make everything you need, if you can survive long 
> enough to figure it out.
> 

Income is relevant as we still live in a money society, Hopefully this is 
short term. Even in a post money economy, If you have to pay the piper for his 
licence, then that will be in blood,sweat and tears. Cash replaced by slavery? 
No thanks! even with the purely semantic difference between the two .

> > New inventions are just progressions of existing technology, so given
> > the wheel it was inevitable that someone would build a cart. So why
> > are we paying the cart builders?
> 
> Money. Old stuff embedded in billions of minds.


Agreed Unfortunately. 
It would be nice to see a workable non money economy. For what its worth i'm 
willing to give barter a try. I have about 30 metric tons of english boulder 
clay. Anyone swap for something? postage might be a bit pricey, but you can 
pick it up if you have a truck. I'll swap small quantities if you have something 
small to exchange.


> 
> > It would be nice to live in a world where invention was done for its
> > own worth rather than the dreams of piles of cash. Wouldn't that kind
> > of world be better at inventing more useful and effective things
> > rather than the same old crap in a different package?
> 
> There *are* people doing stuff just for the hell of it. Art. Open 
> source. Writing emails late at night instead of programming. ;)
> 
> - Bryan
> 

LOL. stop procrastinating and go invent something.

Alex   
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