[ExI] IP vs. a free society/was Re: medical marijuana

[Dave Sill]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 12:48 PM, Adrian Tymes <wingcat at pacbell.net> wrote:

> There may be a silver lining to that.  If person B refuses
> to do any research and independently recreates person A's
> work...has person B added any value, when they could have
> simply looked up the patent database and copied person A's
> work?
>

When person B's method is completely different and turn out to be cheaper to
produce, more reliable, or otherwise superior, yes. But if person B wants to
spend their life reinventing the wheel, and can afford to do so, what harm
is being done?

-Dave
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