John Stracke wrote:
As John Gilmore has pointed out, we are approaching an age when
nanotech will mean that any material object can be copied as
easily as we can currently copy digital information.
This discussion is leaving the realm of ~modifications to RFCs. However,
there are two comments on this:
1) The benefits of nanotech are promising but speculative, while the
issues with IPR are current and real.
2) Assuming that the promise of nanotech is realized, issues with IPR
will be the least of our worries. Issues with physical property and
cash currency will drive any subsequent IPR issues. For example
do we even need to have real estate in a world where production is
not bounded? Do we need companies to provide physical goods? Do we
need cash currency? How do we pay people to re-run fiber when a
train derails if we don't have cash, or if cash has no value, or
if there is no physical property to acquire? Would anybody do it
without pay? Would we want the quality of no-pay work that we
got? No, IPR will be the least of our problems.
As stated, this is OT.
--
Eric A. Hall http://www.ehsco.com/
Internet Core Protocols http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/