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> How much cheaper would a Toyota clone be if it used standard parts and didn’t change every year, where any manufacturer could produce the necessary parts? Th

> How much cheaper would a Toyota clone be if it used standard parts and didn’t change every year, where any manufacturer could produce the necessary parts? There would not be a Toyota to clone since no one would invest in researching original IP that will be exploited be everyone else right away.

boomboomsubban 9y ago
Racing would still invest in original designs, and enthusiasts would love to try designing if there were standardized parts.
- TaylorAlexander 9y ago
  I would design some crazy 3D printed dashboard modifications if I had the source files to my Honda.
  - moftz 9y ago
    No copyright doesn't mean full access to the source code.
TaylorAlexander 9y ago
There’s a difference between original designers and “cloners” in quality and attention to detail. The Toyota clone wouldn’t be as good as the real thing and so there would still be a market for first party goods. But that market would be smaller as many people would be satisfied with a clone. And isn’t that more “efficient”? People satisfied with the cheaper good get the cheaper good and people who want the quality go for the original. In today’s market, when someone who would be satisfied with a clone ends up buying an original, we see that extra money is spent only because Toyota is holding a monopoly on the design information. Except only creating the value should be rewarded, not monopolizing it. We can see today how Joseph Prusa with Prusa research designed the worlds most popular 3D printer, yet many of the users are using clones. There is a market sufficiently interested in quality to support his 30 person (I believe) business despite his product being totally open source and actively cloned by huge companies. It is possible to deliver value as an innovator and creator by selling the best stuff. Even at 3x the price of clones Prusa continues to grow. So I don’t believe that there wouldn’t be car makers - though perhaps there’d be no “Toyota”.
ece 9y ago
I do believe in a balance between public domain, copyleft and copyright, but playing devil's advocate is helpful here. We are supposed to live in a knowledge economy, and inevitably it's copyright and IP that ends up setting the rules and benefiting from it. Luckily there are people who see the value in copyleft and choose relevant projects that can end up making an impact on a large scale.

boomboomsubban 9y ago

Racing would still invest in original designs, and enthusiasts would love to try designing if there were standardized parts.

TaylorAlexander 9y ago
I would design some crazy 3D printed dashboard modifications if I had the source files to my Honda.
- moftz 9y ago
  No copyright doesn't mean full access to the source code.

TaylorAlexander 9y ago

There’s a difference between original designers and “cloners” in quality and attention to detail. The Toyota clone wouldn’t be as good as the real thing and so there would still be a market for first party goods. But that market would be smaller as many people would be satisfied with a clone. And isn’t that more “efficient”? People satisfied with the cheaper good get the cheaper good and people who want the quality go for the original. In today’s market, when someone who would be satisfied with a clone ends up buying an original, we see that extra money is spent only because Toyota is holding a monopoly on the design information. Except only creating the value should be rewarded, not monopolizing it. We can see today how Joseph Prusa with Prusa research designed the worlds most popular 3D printer, yet many of the users are using clones. There is a market sufficiently interested in quality to support his 30 person (I believe) business despite his product being totally open source and actively cloned by huge companies. It is possible to deliver value as an innovator and creator by selling the best stuff. Even at 3x the price of clones Prusa continues to grow. So I don’t believe that there wouldn’t be car makers - though perhaps there’d be no “Toyota”.

ece 9y ago

I do believe in a balance between public domain, copyleft and copyright, but playing devil's advocate is helpful here. We are supposed to live in a knowledge economy, and inevitably it's copyright and IP that ends up setting the rules and benefiting from it. Luckily there are people who see the value in copyleft and choose relevant projects that can end up making an impact on a large scale.