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This is a tiring trope. It’s like how the music industry kept saying that people would no longer sing and make songs, because piracy would prevent them from do
by blackrock 7y ago
This is a tiring trope.
It’s like how the music industry kept saying that people would no longer sing and make songs, because piracy would prevent them from doing so. As if there was no money to be made, and money was the only point of singing. As if piracy ever stopped people from singing for the past 10,000 years.
Well, artists do make money from songs, by having concerts. They are selling the service and the experience of of a live performance. This was the way that it had always been done throughout human history.
Or Apple for example, they don’t make money from selling software, but they make it from selling very expensive hardware, that they force to expire after a few years.
- slimed 7y agoComparing writing new songs to developing new technology is apples to oranges. It doesn't require billions of dollars and man-hours in R&D to follow your passion and write the next big hit. It just takes talent and a few years of practice, if that.
- wolco 7y agoPeople will keep singing and dancing and making music like they have always done. Most didn't make money from it. Sheet music changed that briefly, tapes/records/cds. Music = Copyright = money is a modern thing. Getting billions invested in anything won't happen without a return. If a company is limited to a short window before everyone can copy means less funding and more valueless throwaway products.
- fhbdukfrh 7y agoThis is true for a lot of important drugs that don't have massively lucrative markets to recover their investment. This means fewer new antibiotics for global issues and more penis pills.
- blackrock 7y ago> fewer new antibiotics So companies don’t do this, because there is no profit in it? Perhaps, that is the problem with late stage capitalism itself? Everyone wants to become a rent-seeking landlord. What about a societal need? What about for the survival of the human race? This is like arguing that humanity can’t muster up the ingenuity to solve something to save the human race, just because there’s no profit in it. Necessity is the mother of all invention. If there are fewer antibiotics, then maybe this just means that it is not necessary. Sorry folks! You’re just going to have to take your chances with the Grim Reaper! My bank account can’t be bothered to find a cure for you.
- socialdemocrat 7y agoThere is a happy balance to be had here. Patents as they exist today is often hindering innovation rather than promoting it. E.g. 3D printing really took off when 3D printing patents started expiring. The industry was stuck while patents where enforceable. In many industries patents are an innovation blocker. Companies often spend more money fighting patents trolls than they gain form having patents. Patens are increasingly acquired for defensive purpose to defend against patent troll attacks rather than actually protecting any innovation. I am not against intellectual property protection, but I think how things have developed in the US in particular is excessive and counterproductive.
- blackrock 7y agoExactly. Like solar panels. It existed for decades, and languished in the labs, behind patent protections, until the patents expired. Then China came onto the scene, and innovated in mass production techniques to make it cheaper. And now, solar energy just crossed a milestone, at 4 cents per kilowatt hour, making it competitive with other energy sectors.
- blackrock 7y ago> less funding and more valueless throwaway products Everything is derivative. Even the latest generation of CPU technology pushing faster clock rates and adding more cores. It’s still derivative of the initial idea of the transistor. You build value by building a moat. You make your business more valuable by making it harder for others to get into, almost like a natural monopoly. Like consumer automobiles, which require a huge investment in societal knowledge and capability. Only a few countries can mass produce cars at a commercial level. Or commercial airplanes, where only a few companies can really make a profit. Or even Tesla, by changing the paradigm, from internal combustion engines, to fully electric drivetrains. My initial comment was only to rebut the idea that you can’t do anything without massive amounts of patents and copyrights. Which in itself, has gone too far.
- vertig0h 7y agoThis is a shortsighted view. Evidence from many other industries with weak property rights contradicts your point. Nigeria's film industry is unable to allocate significant resources to film production in large part because Nigeria's government is incapable of enforcing copyright on behalf of the filmmakers. Stealing IP does have an impact on capital allocation.
- megablast 7y agoDoesn't Nigeria make more films than everyone else? I am not sure how this supports your point? There is no way Nigeria will put in the money that the US does.
- blackrock 7y agoI’m sorry, what? Nigeria has a film industry? I can’t even locate that country on the map. Edit: I don’t think this is a good example. Nigeria has other problems and priorities to tackle first.
- chillacy 7y agoActually sort of true, though I might say a better example is Singapore, which attracts business in part because it has the strongest legal system and lowest corruption of the countries in southeast asia.
- socialdemocrat 7y agoOne can take a balanced position on this without going to either extreme. American companies have certainly abused the patent and copyright system by allowing patents to last for far too long and cover too much. Likewise copyrights have been applied for too long time periods. Yet I don't think the solution to this problem is to abandoned both systems completely. Rather copyright period should be shortened, and patents should cover less and last for a shorter time. Right now the system is not setup to support innovation and creation but rather to act as cash cow for big corporations.
- frequentnapper 7y agoIt's not just about disregarding IP patents. It's about corporate espionage. Literally sending in spies/criminals to steal from a corporation.
- blackrock 7y agoCorporate espionage is a financial crime. If you have strategic secrets, then lock those damn secrets up! Put heavy encryption on it. Keep it off the internet. Keep your computers air-gapped. If you don’t do this, then sorry, this is your fault. However, if someone else wants to compete with you, then they can just reverse engineer what you did. Any engineer competent enough can figure out the process details, by just working backwards. They don’t even need to bother looking at your source code or blueprints.