Interesting piece on IP

[MonsterMash]

An interesting op-ed article about intellectual property at the Guardian

Its interesting to see how quickly companies like Amazon are trying to patent things which at least IMHO should not be patentable, not least because of prior art and it does remind me of the story that some guy attempted to patent a method for transport and load bearing using a circular device AKA the wheel. (Couldn't find a source for that).

 

[Flyspeck23]

Ideas such as one-click shopping, getting customer reviews on a website or even putting classified ads on the internet are now patented, which is to say that somebody owns them - Amazon.com the first two, Google, the classified ad patent - and anybody else who wants to make use of them must pay a rent to the owner.

Amazon could possibly trademark "one-click shopping", so that no other online shop could call it that way - and even that'd be silly. But a patent? That's dumb.

Even more so for customer feedback - huh? Wonder if RPGNow.com is paying that rent

 

[Numion]

This type of stuff never fails to make me feel a bit better about my piracy. YARRRRR!!!

 

[Omegaz]

IP is completely out of control, particularly patents. There are some companies that do nothing but hunt down and buy older IP, and then try to profit by suing everyone that might possibly violate their "hard earned" IP.

At the same time as companies are trying to claim ownership of everything, even human DNA, the Public Domain is being eroded. Nothing in the USA will enter the public domain till 2017, and all because a handful of properties (one famous mouse for instance) were due to enter the public domain in 2003.

 

[Psionicist]

The interesting thing is pretty much everyone who actually figure out how to do the stuff in patents are against them. The guy who got the idea of one-click shopping at amazon is against software patents. So are most pharmaceutical _researches_, and most people with actual scientific knowledge.

The problem is the lawyers and the business guys as usual. To quote futurama:

Farnsworth: "But, what about your super-intelligence?"
Gunther: "When I had that there was too much pressure to use it. All I want out of life is to be a monkey of moderate intelligence who wears a suit. That's why I've decided to transfer to business school!"
Farnsworth: "Noooooooooo!"

 

[Steel_Wind]

The thing which is out of control is the US Congress and the entire idea of software patents in the first place. It is the lobby system and soft money political donations at work here.

If the rest of the world had any balls, they'd just say "no". But the trade deficit in the USA indicates we need their market more than we need to say no. And so the farce continues.

So far, it looks as if Europe is caving and it would not surprise me if Canada caves soon too.

IP was conceived to promote business - not unjustly enrich it.

I will end this here - this is politics and is not for ENWolrd. But to lend credence to specious legal arguments without recognizing them for the pure politics they are is offensive.