On 7/29/07, shiv sastry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Sunday 29 Jul 2007 8:30 pm, Venkatesh Hariharan wrote:
> > Hi Charles,
> >
> > My replies below:
>
> I am just wondering if this entire "intellectual property" hoohah is more
> American, and in fact _recent_American_ rather than "Western"
>
> Knowledge, as in "gyan" - especially in science, and particularly in Medicine
> was freely shared in Europe and indeed by the US that took over Europe's
> mantle in many ways.
>
> It is the US of the last 40 years or so, with its patent lawyers, that has
> skewed things in this direction.
>
> I believe that the long arm of the American lawyer, attached to greedy
> ("cotton pickin'?") fingers has brought the world to this pass. American
> lawyers - apart from being involved in this patents galata, are to be found
> in strange places - such as a backseat driver standing behind the virtual
> pilot of a pilotless armed Predator unmanned aerial vehicle - to decide
> whether the truck or village party being tracked has Osammy in it, and
> whether it is legal to blast the object into jannat.
Patents were introduced to increase sharing of knowledge. Till then
professional knowledge ("intellectual property") was kept as closely
held guild and trade secrets.
Patents are intended to increase sharing of knowledge.
-- Charles
