On 7/30/07, Srini Ramakrishnan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 7/30/07, Charles Haynes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 7/29/07, shiv sastry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Sunday 29 Jul 2007 8:30 pm, Venkatesh Hariharan wrote: > [...] > > > > > Patents are intended to increase sharing of knowledge. > > Indeed, and all best intentions can be made into a mockery. Are you > saying that patents are an unquestionable "good thing" (TM)?
Not at all. Simply refuting what I perceived as a claim that patents were an evil western invention intended to enrich people and deprive the public of valuable knowledge, when in fact they were intended to provide an alternative to guild and trade secrets. My naive observation is that the "traditional Indian" view of "intellectual property" is to try to keep it secret rather than some utopian ideal of universal sharing. Just try to get your neighbor's grandmother's sambar recipe. -- Charles -- Charles
