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Intellectual Ventures ramps up lobbying in face of new legislation
- spiritplumber 13y agoI regret having lived, for a short time, within trebuchet range of these folks and not doing anything with it.
- reginaldjcooper 13y agoA donation to the EFF might cheer you up :)
- triplesec 13y agocan you get back within range?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- daveyoon 13y agoThe sad thing is that they are capitalized by so many public and private pension funds ... pension participants are unwittingly sapping a core engine of growth.
- bronbron 13y agoMan, the worst part is that Intellectual Ventures Lab works on some really cool stuff. Maybe a little impractical, but really cool and innovative nonetheless. I'd totally go work for them if they weren't backed by one of the worst corporations on the planet.
- michael_h 13y agoDo they actually work on really cool stuff though? As far as I can tell, they think up something that could possibly exist and patent it without actually making it, or if they do make it, they only do it halfway (aka not doing the actual difficult parts).
- ceejayoz 13y agoMy understanding is that they at least work on some token projects so they can say to legislators "look, see, we do!"
- bronbron 13y agoAh, I hadn't even considered that - I just remember reading a few articles about their projects but it didn't occur to me that it might be complete vaporware.
- georgemcbay 13y agoMost of the time they don't even do the thinking part, they just buy bulk patents from others on the cheap. They have something like 50,000 patents, only a very small fraction of which they came up with internally, most were bought.
- chris_va 13y agoSo I went to the IV dog and pony show. There was maybe 1 project that was actually interesting out of ~dozens. They don't have the technological research base to actually finish a project in house, so I think they tend to spin stuff out. Example (with dubious prospects): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraPower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraPower IV hasn't gone after the little guys yet, so I find the Lodsys-type guys a lot scarier.
- jkestner 13y agoIsn't Lodsys strongly linked to IV? As in, they're playing the shell game?
- chris_va 13y agoFrom what I have read from other hacker news threads, there is no evidence of that (and Lodsys apparently denies it). Digging around, the only connection I could find was IV selling Lodsys some of its patents. Not much evidence for an actually connection, much less shell game.
- 13y ago
- triplesec 13y agoThat's the problem indeed. With great intellect and ability comes great responsibility and these very smart guys (hence the lab) have only he intellects, not the depth of intelligence to realise that their own individual corner is not all that matters in the bigger game. They're the tagger that ruins Banksy's artworks, the despot who sends out the first nuke...
- greglindahl 13y agoYou have bought into their marketing. Their main business is not inventing cool stuff: that's just a hobby that looks good. It represents a small fraction of the money.
- wheaties 13y agoThey fear a weakening of the patent system. We fear a strengthening of it. Our goals and fears are at odds. Our interests are misaligned. In a perfect world this company would exist to invent and license new ideas. In our imperfect world they exist to invent licenses for new ideas.
- shmerl 13y ago> In a perfect world this company would exist to invent and license new ideas. No, in a perfect world this company wouldn't exist at all, and its founders would be jailed for racketeering. In our imperfect world these thugs claim they are a "legitimate business".
- nimble 13y agoFor some reason I read their name as "Intellectual Vampires."
- shmerl 13y agoMore like Intellectual Vultures.
- shmerl 13y ago> Intellectual Ventures spent $310,000 to influence federal policy from July 1 through Sept. 30, up from $165,000 the firm reported spending on lobbying during the previous months, according to a report filed with the U.S. Senate. What does this mean exactly, and how is this different from bribery and corruption?
- rayiner 13y agoPaying a lobbying firm to push a particular policy is quite different than bribing a public official. Lobbying isn't, by and large, an act of "hey here's a $50 why don't you look the other way." It's: "hey, your staff doesn't have time to write a bill so here's some proposed text." Or: "hey, here is this study we commissioned showing that global warming is a sham, so you have something to throw back at people who claim you're being unscientific." Lobbying involves a ton of leg-work and that's not free.
- shmerl 13y agoIsn't it still undemocratic? Since anyone with bigger pockets can buy more influence. If not bribery, it still looks like corruption.
- dhimes 13y agoYes, but shutting it down smacks of censorship/abridging free speech. Or, at least, that's the argument that you hear.
- rayiner 13y agoA substantial amount of what people call "corruption" in American politics is instead two cherished principles of American society being fundamentally at odds as a result of our representative system. We want everyone to have an equal say in government, but we also want people to be able to freely express their political opinions. Why is it wrong for an environmental group to be able to draft a proposed law to give legislators something concrete to work with? Why is it wrong for an industry organization, which usually knows way more about the specific industry than the lay public, to educate legislators about their industry? Why is it wrong for a rich person to buy media time to convince voters of his views? These activities aren't inherently wrong. They're not inherently corruption. We might not like the consequences resulting from these activities. Often, we just don't like the people engaging in these activities. But as long as they're directed at convincing people (either voters or politicians), as opposed to giving out personal benefits, these activities aren't corruption.