On Sun, Apr 01, 2001 at 04:48:16PM +0100, Lloyd Wood wrote:
On Fri, 30 Mar 2001, Keith Moore wrote:
let's stamp out proprietary data formats (and patent profiteering)
in our lifetime.
and then the incentive to innovate is what, exactly?
1) profit clearly isn't the only incentive to innovate.
2) there are innumerable ways to make a profit that do not require
"proprietary data formats and patent profiteering".
3) dislike of "patent profiteering" is not the same as dislike of
patents.
Patents and other intellectual property instruments are (historically)
justified indirectly by their social utility, not because of any obvious
direct or intrinsic moral notion of "intellectual property". As you
imply, the social utility is that society benefits from the innovation
fostered by patents. But if patents and copyrights are used to stifle
innovation, then they lose legitimacy. I don't want to put words in
Keith's mouth, but I think he would say that the core of his concern is
that patents are now being used to stifle creativity.
--
Kent Crispin "Be good, and you will be
kent(_at_)songbird(_dot_)com lonesome." -- Mark Twain