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Look at how much open source has revolutionized the software industry. It teaches us a few lessons. First, that people invent for the joy of it regardless. And

Look at how much open source has revolutionized the software industry. It teaches us a few lessons. First, that people invent for the joy of it regardless. And second, that innovation happens faster when unencumbered. Another good example is penicillin. Imagine where we would be with bacterial infections today without it entering the public domain from day 1. I understand the desire to own your work, and immediately arriving at the conclusion that patents are morally or ethically right, but fundamentally when you release some piece of information into the world, it is for all practical purposes no longer yours. Patents are an artificial protection for something that simply isn't true in practice, and it doesn't appear that it increases innovation at all, if your focus is the practical side of things.

TulliusCicero 5y ago
> First, that people invent for the joy of it regardless. Some things sure, but I don't see how this would work for drugs that cost tens of millions of dollars to develop and run through trials.
- alexvoda 5y ago
  First of all, plenty of drug research and patents are actually done in order to develop variants that avoid other patents. Patents in the drug industry are mostly a parasite producing more patents. Secondly, plenty of research is publicly funded. The major philosophical error people make when asking why would people create anything in the absence of IP laws is believing that just because they created/invented something, they are owed something in return. Plenty of times, IP gets created, but there is no one to sell licensees to because no one wants it. The major historical error is believing forgetting that people created and invented stuff just fine before IP laws existed.
- betwixthewires 5y ago
  Well, here's a thought. Maybe they cost so much because everyone has to start from scratch because they're not allowed to leverage existing tech and research because of patents.

TulliusCicero 5y ago

> First, that people invent for the joy of it regardless. Some things sure, but I don't see how this would work for drugs that cost tens of millions of dollars to develop and run through trials.

alexvoda 5y ago
First of all, plenty of drug research and patents are actually done in order to develop variants that avoid other patents. Patents in the drug industry are mostly a parasite producing more patents. Secondly, plenty of research is publicly funded. The major philosophical error people make when asking why would people create anything in the absence of IP laws is believing that just because they created/invented something, they are owed something in return. Plenty of times, IP gets created, but there is no one to sell licensees to because no one wants it. The major historical error is believing forgetting that people created and invented stuff just fine before IP laws existed.
betwixthewires 5y ago
Well, here's a thought. Maybe they cost so much because everyone has to start from scratch because they're not allowed to leverage existing tech and research because of patents.