On 3 Jun 2004, at 12:36 AM, Tim Churches wrote:
Sure there is little hope for patent reform in the US and thus US citizens might as
well roll over and read a good book...
cute, but irrelevant. if you want to follow the patent reform debate, then go hang out on the eff website.
my point, second attempt:
[1] the foss process in and of itself disintermediates the patent system as it is perceived by (and abused by) the patentistas
[2] increasing the success of open source solutions reduces the relevance of outrageous patents
[3] patent "reform" in any country is not immediately relevant
[a] because patent abuse shenanigans are a sign of creative failure (and of foss success)
[b] because in the long cycle strengthening the foss portfolio builds an unassailable commons
[c] see #1
will we ever disabuse the patentistas from their fundamental desire to sue their way to the top? no, their tactics remain valid on a microeconomic level, it's their strategic dependence upon private knowledge portfolios we are shredding with an asymmetric foss assault at a macroeconomic level.
am i outraged by the disneyfication of global culture? not really, i have trouble prioritising rage as an appropriate response.
am i amused by patent madness among the globalisation elite? yes, i am amused by it.
microsoft patents the double click? let them, they must be more desperate than i thought.
can i stop masses of people who are unable to think for themselves from behaving like idiots? no, but i can contribute towards a long term solution by banding together with reasonable people who actually think for a change, about a change, and who build the change.
if at the end of the day fools remain in hot pursuit of absurd power monopolies, tell me how this is different from any other day in the past, say, few thousand years?
meanwhile, weber's book is excellent. here's a couple of decent quotes:
"Property in open source is configured around the right to distribute, not the right to exclude. ... Is it possible to build a working economic system around the core notion of property rights as distribution?"
"The open source process has generalizable characteristics, it is a generic production process, and it can and will spread to other kinds of production."
"There is no state of nature on the Internet. Knowledge does not want to be 'free' (or for that matter, 'owned') more than it wants to be anything else."
[wr]
- - - - - - - -
will ross director of communication services alliance for rural community health 776 s. state street, suite 102-b ukiah, california 95482 usa [cell] 707.272.7255 [desk] 707.462.1477 ext 105 [fax] 707.462.1503 http://www.ruralcommunityhealth.org
- - - - - - - -
