No worries. That's just a flippant saying to reflect that the free market model is riddled with problems and yet it is the best model out there, IMHO.
Free beer is good, but yes, the freedom for me as an individual to spend my time the way I see fit or lack of freedom to take advantage of someone's work without compensating him for it. Maybe our understanding of a (general) free market model is different? I would agree with your examples, in general, even though specifically I'd dispute most of them. The cave man who "invented" fire had a patent and was better off than his fireless buddies for a time. His patent was if someone tried to steal his property he would kill them. He had a monopoly punishable by death. I bet he got all the hot cave women... In the absolute, I would agree that patents are not absolutely necessary for innovation. Some people would do it just for the sake of doing it. Most would not. Would you agree that patents and property rights greatly accelerate the rate of innovations, accelerating the growth of a free market economy? Why would I would I work nights and weekends to come up with a solution to a real world problem if I knew that as soon as I did I received nothing for it? The answer is I would not. I would do something where I would get rewarded instead. Camp, fish, raise kids, work a few extra hours for that new toy money, you get the picture. Why would a pharmaceutical company spend millions on researching a new cancer drug if they knew they were just throwing money out the window? If they had to turn over the results to the market where their competitors, without investing millions, could turn around and use that knowledge against them? Out of the goodness of their own humanity? I think not. People are going to randomly create things things that make their life easier or better. A patent(in a perfect world) helps motivate someone or business by ensuring that their investment in time and money will be a good one. I believe you must have some form of this in a free market economy. Yes it may be riddled with problems, yes at times it impedes growth, but without it I would argue that a free market economy would fail. Sort of a two steps forward, one step back approach as apposed to a very small baby step forward. --- On Thu, 4/8/10, Viktor Klang <[email protected]> wrote: From: Viktor Klang <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [The Java Posse] Software Patents To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, April 8, 2010, 3:12 PM Oh, I apologize, I meant this: "The free market economic model is a lousy one, but it is the best by far." <---- That sentence doesn't make sense. Connecting free markets with patents (artificial constraints) doesn't make sense. Because I'm going out on a limb here and think it's "free" as in freedom and not in beer? This will be a veeeery long discussion, but let's agree on that we got the wheel, the fire, the agriculture and roads and clothes and a lot more without any patents. So, saying that patents are needed to fuel innovation is simply not true. On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 10:23 PM, Scott Melton <[email protected]> wrote: All of those sentences make sense to me... Maybe my wording isn't clear, sorry, I AM an engineer... I think I understand what you meant, but (in my opinion) it is not "the very purpose of patent law to reduce freedom in the market". I hope it is not even A purpose in a free market model. An unintended(hopefully) consequence of patent law is to reduce some freedom in a limited fashion for some people for a limited period of time with the intended purpose of rewarding innovators and preserving the concept of personal ownership. That would be my "rose colored glasses" way of looking at this complex problem/solution. I know very little about patent laws or their effect on any business model and did not intend on joining the discussion. I just wanted to point out a post that I thought was unpleasant and to encourage people to air their opinion, biased or not. I threw in an opinion to not be completely off topic. Please, you folks that know something about this issue, carry on. --- On Thu, 4/8/10, Viktor Klang <[email protected]> wrote: From: Viktor Klang <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [The Java Posse] Software Patents and Joe bashing To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, April 8, 2010, 11:58 AM On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 7:54 PM, Scott Melton <[email protected]> wrote: Not knowing much about anyone making the decisions(other than they are human, most of them), simply greedy, applied to this complex problem, would be an over simplification. A component of the problem? Sure. Assuming they are more knowledgeable about patent law than I am is a given. I can only hope that the process involves experts in the field they are ruling over with some system of checks and balances. A false hope maybe. If so then that is part of the process that is broken. The free market economic model is a lousy one, but it is the best by far. That sentence doesn't make sense. The very purpose of patent law is to reduce freedom in the market. A patent is a virtual monopoly, reducing manufacturing competition and process efficiency. Government intrusion on this model is a rarely helpful yet necessary weevil. Caution should be to limit it where ever possible. Opinion sent from my ASS phone. --- On Thu, 4/8/10, Mark Volkmann <[email protected]> wrote: From: Mark Volkmann <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [The Java Posse] Software Patents and Joe bashing To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, April 8, 2010, 10:49 AM On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 11:12 AM, Scott Melton <[email protected]> wrote: In a free and open society it is easy to find fault in complicated systems, just as it is easy to have a bias, pick sides and misrepresent the facts. One example in this thread, I may be wrong, but I think there is good reason for simplifying the patent granting process from who invented it first(which can be very difficult and costly to prove) to who filed first. Is the change a choice between the lesser of two weavels? Certainly. Infinitely more knowledgeable people than I made the decision. I will side with them until I become a patent lawyer or become so well informed that I can pass judgment on this complicated system. Why do you assume the people responsible for our current patent system are more knowledgeable than you rather than simply more greedy? -- R. Mark Volkmann Object Computing, Inc. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- Viktor Klang | "A complex system that works is invariably | found to have evolved from a simple system | that worked." - John Gall Akka - the Actor Kernel: Akkasource.org Twttr: twitter.com/viktorklang -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- Viktor Klang | "A complex system that works is invariably | found to have evolved from a simple system | that worked." - John Gall Akka - the Actor Kernel: Akkasource.org Twttr: twitter.com/viktorklang -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
