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I maintain that patents are unequivocally bad across the board no matter who holds them. We like to subscribe to this myth of the "small-time inventor" being ab
by sam0x17 3y ago
I maintain that patents are unequivocally bad across the board no matter who holds them. We like to subscribe to this myth of the "small-time inventor" being able to capitalize on their invention by requiring copycats to pay them licensing fees.
This is a myth, and even if it were true, the small-time inventor in that scenario is just as much of a barrier to human progress as the large corporation that will inevitably gate-keep the invention and extract every drop of profit they can from it for as long as legally possible.
Patents are just a way to kneecap you and all countries allied with you when compared with countries that don't honor those patents.
The same goes for IP in general, but that's a whole other can of worms...
- stasmo 3y agoI agree with you, but one could argue that R&D money comes from a desire to patent.
- sam0x17 3y agoOne could, and one could counter with "then that is R&D done for the wrong reasons" This is why we (at least used to) have things like wide-sweeping federally funded research grants aimed at advancing science and technology in areas and ways short-sighted profit-seeking R&D can seldom touch Not discovering a thing is almost better than someone discovering it and then patenting it, imo. It's negative progress.
- mrguyorama 3y agoAnd I would point to the entirety of Open Source software