8 ms·

I'm sorry but this is just not true. You say the kind of people who deserve a patent would do the work either way and then you suggest a handful of people. Ma

I'm sorry but this is just not true. You say the kind of people who deserve a patent would do the work either way and then you suggest a handful of people. Many, many people have created things for the purpose of making money. Your world would eliminate people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Later in life, when Jobs had billions, he didn't seem to care about money anymore but in the beginning Apple tried everything. They even had a clothing line. As for your examples, Linus didn't invent. He made a version of an existing OS and started with an existing version of a copy of that OS. He did it for fun, but one must also recognize that he's gained a tremendous amount by this seemingly "benevolent" action. Fresh out of college he could take much more interesting jobs than most people with his background could. His "gift" ended up being a loss leader for his career. So if we were reliant on only having people like Tesla to push us forward we'd be nowhere near where we are today. Tesla was brilliant but there are just far too few people who think and work as he did.

wissler 14y ago
"Your world would eliminate people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates." You've got to be kidding. Do you know nothing about the history of software? "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today."--Bill Gates
- roopeshv 14y ago
  "that's the great thing about internet, you can make up quotes, and attribute it to others" --abraham lincoln so, please cite.
  - wissler 14y ago
    Please use Google instead of posting mindless sarcasm. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html?_r=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html?_r=1
    - roopeshv 14y ago
      please provide citations and don't expect people to clean up after you. and still it's a hearsay, no link to memo (although internal)
    - wissler 14y ago
      "please provide citations and don't expect people to clean up after you. and still it's a hearsay, no link to memo" Who do you think you are that you can tell people on what terms they can cite a quote from the New York Times? No, I am not going to do a scientific research paper tracing the historical roots of this oft-cited (in reputable media) quote. Please take your head and pull it out of your ass.
      - roopeshv 14y ago
        you can suck my dick then

wissler 14y ago

"Your world would eliminate people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates." You've got to be kidding. Do you know nothing about the history of software? "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today."--Bill Gates

roopeshv 14y ago
"that's the great thing about internet, you can make up quotes, and attribute it to others" --abraham lincoln so, please cite.
- wissler 14y ago
  Please use Google instead of posting mindless sarcasm. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html?_r=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html?_r=1
  - roopeshv 14y ago
    please provide citations and don't expect people to clean up after you. and still it's a hearsay, no link to memo (although internal)
  - wissler 14y ago
    "please provide citations and don't expect people to clean up after you. and still it's a hearsay, no link to memo" Who do you think you are that you can tell people on what terms they can cite a quote from the New York Times? No, I am not going to do a scientific research paper tracing the historical roots of this oft-cited (in reputable media) quote. Please take your head and pull it out of your ass.
    - roopeshv 14y ago
      you can suck my dick then