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I'm talking about patents. Patents are tools in the same sense that landmines are.
by brlewis 11y ago
I'm talking about patents. Patents are tools in the same sense that landmines are.
- sosborn 11y agoWhy choose the word landmine? What's wrong with, say, a hammer?
- brlewis 11y agoHammers aren't used to exclude people from a path they might otherwise blissfully follow.
- sosborn 11y agoI guess I disagree with the idea that patents are inherently bad. Like hammers they can be used to build or to destroy.
- ycombobreaker 11y agoYou simply aren't using enough hammers! Though seriously, I think the term landmine is loaded toward using patents exclusively as a troll. A wider analogy could be like a toll bridge, where the builder should be compensated by travelers. Some tolls could be usurious, but that wouldn't invalidate the whole principle.