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Are we really blaming the technology here? You're neglecting the reality: that a person--a living, breathing, thinking person--is behind the switch or lever tha

Are we really blaming the technology here? You're neglecting the reality: that a person--a living, breathing, thinking person--is behind the switch or lever that eliminates access. Connected computing is the inevitable future. We will always hold less physical computing capability in our hands then can be beamed to us from afar on-demand. What is ridiculous is the systems--the people systems--we have built that fostered this ethical failure. The social system of law that constrains Apple's behaviors. The internal social system at Apple whose 'conservative' default behavior is to remove rather then remit. There's a dude at Apple whose fear for losing his job overrides any sense of disgust he may have felt doing this. The technology is not at fault. Our contemporary framework for regulating that technology--our society's response to that technology--is at fault.

gaius 14y ago
a living, breathing, thinking person--is behind the switch or lever that eliminates access. A living, breathing, thinking person also did the research that this technology is based on, possibly risking their own capital (livelihood) to do so. Are they not entitled to earn anything? Should all researchers be starving artists in garrets? Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it.
- PGenes 14y ago
  This is what I don't get about the patent system. It should not be about denying others access, but ensuring that those who use the patent pay their dues to the originator. Then nobody but the greedy loses.
- HolyHaddock 14y ago
  > Are they not entitled to earn anything? Should all researchers be starving artists in garrets? Do you mean the creators of SfY, who seem to claim to have done at least some of the research that went into it themselves, or do you discount their effort and risk merely because another company accused them of infringing a software patent?
- jopt 14y ago
  Nobody is entitled to earn anything. Perhaps your great idea can't make money without a special legal monopoly, but that is not in itself a reason for the legal monopoly to exist. Being creative is not a license to get rich off your ideas.
  - paulhauggis 14y ago
    I wonder what all of the pro-union people here on HN have to say about this. Unions are, in essence, a special monopoly in certain industries that entitles people to a certain wage. In some industries (like the auto industry), a job that normally should pay a little above minimum wage is inflated to many more times this. "Being creative is not a license to get rich off your ideas." When copyrights and patents are finally gone, I hope I have money. Why? I will have the resources to cherry pick up-and-coming inventors that don't have the same resources as I do.

gaius 14y ago

a living, breathing, thinking person--is behind the switch or lever that eliminates access. A living, breathing, thinking person also did the research that this technology is based on, possibly risking their own capital (livelihood) to do so. Are they not entitled to earn anything? Should all researchers be starving artists in garrets? Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it.

PGenes 14y ago
This is what I don't get about the patent system. It should not be about denying others access, but ensuring that those who use the patent pay their dues to the originator. Then nobody but the greedy loses.
HolyHaddock 14y ago
> Are they not entitled to earn anything? Should all researchers be starving artists in garrets? Do you mean the creators of SfY, who seem to claim to have done at least some of the research that went into it themselves, or do you discount their effort and risk merely because another company accused them of infringing a software patent?
jopt 14y ago
Nobody is entitled to earn anything. Perhaps your great idea can't make money without a special legal monopoly, but that is not in itself a reason for the legal monopoly to exist. Being creative is not a license to get rich off your ideas.
- paulhauggis 14y ago
  I wonder what all of the pro-union people here on HN have to say about this. Unions are, in essence, a special monopoly in certain industries that entitles people to a certain wage. In some industries (like the auto industry), a job that normally should pay a little above minimum wage is inflated to many more times this. "Being creative is not a license to get rich off your ideas." When copyrights and patents are finally gone, I hope I have money. Why? I will have the resources to cherry pick up-and-coming inventors that don't have the same resources as I do.