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You could physically steal plans, drawings, or documentation describing inventions or technology. Infringe isn’t necessarily the best term here when the technol
by mbreese 8y ago
You could physically steal plans, drawings, or documentation describing inventions or technology. Infringe isn’t necessarily the best term here when the technology in question isn’t necessarily covered by copyright, but likely a mixture of patents or trade secrets.
In these areas of, shall we say, ‘loose’ IP enforcement, I don’t think you’ve seen any instances of really transformational increases in technology, but rather incremental improvements. Evolution rather than revolution, if you will. I don’t think you’d see major changes without strong IP law enforcement. While there can be some rapid improvements in existing tech, with lax IP enforcement, how much new tech could you really expect? We’d end up stuck in a local minima.
- chillacy 8y agoSteal implies a loss of the physical good: if I steal your car, I get a car and you lose your car. If I steal your money you lose that quantity of cash. If I steal your idea... what have you lost? The opportunity to make money? But it's not like I took your idea and wiped the memory from your brain. So steal I don't think is the right word. As far as technology, software is relatively IP lax and innovative, which lets us mix and remix from a common knowledge pool. Imagine how much slower software development would be if we all had to pay royalties to knuth for using an if statement, royalties for using any encryption, or any algorithm which was, after all, non-obvious before it was invented.