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Sigh... Go watch "The Internet's Own Boy", Aaron Swartz's biopic, which describes the arguments for and against copyright/patents, you'll learn something. No q

Sigh... Go watch "The Internet's Own Boy", Aaron Swartz's biopic, which describes the arguments for and against copyright/patents, you'll learn something. No question, the system is flawed, but not irredeemably so. I still think it is valuable to be able to say (as copyright does) 'I made this thing, deserve to be paid if others use it, and can control to an extent how it gets used.' Ditto for patents - 'What I made is my original idea or is an improvement based on the work of those who came before me.' If, as I understand your argument, you are in favor of the libertarian view which advocates that the government create no law which protects these constructs, you also deserve to be ignored.

alexvoda 6y ago
While I do not agree with the paragraph about trade secrets because that would represent compelled speach I agree that copyright and patents are noxious. Both have been innefective at promoting innovation through disincentivising trade secrets. The most precious knowledge is not released and copyrighted and patented. It is still kept a secret. If they were effective we would be living in a world dominated by shared source instead of binary blobs and obfuscation. Without copyright and patents, trade secrets are the main protection mechanism but at the same time reverse engineering is not restricted in any way.