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This whole story brings on such a lugubrious feeling. I mean, I guess we can chalk it up to human nature, but, patent system aside: How did we ever arrive at t

by Arjuna 13y ago

This whole story brings on such a lugubrious feeling. I mean, I guess we can chalk it up to human nature, but, patent system aside: How did we ever arrive at the place where we believe that everyone else must lose in order for someone to win? How did we get to a point where we believe that we have to take from someone else's plate when there's more than enough to go around? How did we lose the vision that bringing the highest performance, service, features and functionality is "The Right Way" to deliver and compete, instead of destroying ourselves? How did we become so misguided that, even with a broken patent system, we are not intelligent enough and civil enough to simply do "The Right Thing?" None of this activity is in the spirit of the Hacker Ethos, regardless of the broken system. At what point did we lose our bearing? I'm reminded of Joshua's observation from WarGames: "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." Sigh...

allochthon 13y ago
we are not intelligent enough and civil enough to simply do "The Right Thing?" With the majority of people, who are generally decent, the honor system is workable. Problems arise with a minority of people who are willing to exploit loopholes and engage in freeloading (e.g., patent trolls). This creates the tragedy of the commons [1]. With the existence of freeloaders, it is necessary to carefully craft public policy to discourage freeloading and rent seeking. Right now the US (and perhaps international) patent system does just the opposite. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
chongli 13y ago
This isn't just a human problem, it is one that exists throughout nature. Cheaters, free riders, parasites; just a few names for the same idea: beings that benefit at the cost of others. The problem is that natural selection favours these cheaters. The best we can hope for is to mitigate the effects of cheating. Attempts to completely stamp out cheating (such as the patent system) are doomed to failure.

by Arjuna 13y ago

allochthon 13y ago

we are not intelligent enough and civil enough to simply do "The Right Thing?" With the majority of people, who are generally decent, the honor system is workable. Problems arise with a minority of people who are willing to exploit loopholes and engage in freeloading (e.g., patent trolls). This creates the tragedy of the commons [1]. With the existence of freeloaders, it is necessary to carefully craft public policy to discourage freeloading and rent seeking. Right now the US (and perhaps international) patent system does just the opposite. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

chongli 13y ago

This isn't just a human problem, it is one that exists throughout nature. Cheaters, free riders, parasites; just a few names for the same idea: beings that benefit at the cost of others. The problem is that natural selection favours these cheaters. The best we can hope for is to mitigate the effects of cheating. Attempts to completely stamp out cheating (such as the patent system) are doomed to failure.