On Wed, 2011-08-10 at 14:51 -0700, Cédric Beust ♔ wrote: [ . . . ] > > Of course, but what if $BIG_COMPANY copies your product and releases > it two months after your own for free, just because they have the > money to do so? > > > Does that seem fair for you?
No but that is what happens, and patents won't fix it. It's called business. Fairness is an irrelevance. If you have lots of money you can do whatever you want as long as you don't annoy another player with lots of money, or the government. Little guys do not have a place at the table of this game. Patents or no patents, the little guys never have the financial resources to play in any arena where big guys play. It's at the very foundation of capitalism. In the end the only business model for the small guy is to be bought by the big guy, or become a big guy by some form of stealth (*) (**). Whatever their original purpose -- and actually the original purpose of letter patent was to ensure monopolies for the friends of the crown, cf. 14th century history -- they are now a tool for big business. Little guys just do not have the resources to play. (*) There are many definitions here but principally it means having a way of becoming big enough to fight in the arena by the time the existing big guys notice you and want your business. cf. IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, and others. (**) Patents are the antithesis of stealth since they require full disclosure. Hence commercial secrecy, copyright and NDAs being the tools of stealth. -- Russel. ============================================================================= Dr Russel Winder t: +44 20 7585 2200 voip: sip:[email protected] 41 Buckmaster Road m: +44 7770 465 077 xmpp: [email protected] London SW11 1EN, UK w: www.russel.org.uk skype: russel_winder
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