Re: Article: IBM wants to "clean up the license" of Linux

Dave Cinege (dcinege@psychosis.com)
Sun, 20 Dec 1998 23:55:18 -0500

Bob McElrath wrote:
>
> You guys forget that one of the main reasons for inventing patents in the
> first place is to protect someone who dumps a lot of money into developing
> something. If the "something" they sell based on that is easily reverse
> engineered and copied, then the reverse engineers have the upper hand, and
> always will.

This is one form of the long standing statist ideal that 'we must protect the
large companies for the common good.'

The two main errors of this are:

#1 It gives an advantage to the entity over the individual.
(legal person vs natural person)

#2 It defies the will of the free market.

The reason technology has advanced is not because companies went forth blindly.
There was a market, and R&D was performed to invent product to fill that
market. A patent on the end result reduces RISK on the companies (shareholders)
INVESTMENT. The patent itself does not create the market or guarantee profit.
It does however limit competition for those with the RESOURCES to use the
courts in welding the patent, both inside the patent's scope, AND OUTSIDE of
it.

Free market breeds innovation. Competition enhances consumer buying power and
further refinement. A government mandated monopoly (like a patent) works
against both of these.

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I'm the Degenerate Overclocker that did it.  http://www.psychosis.com/doa/


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