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Re: [News] Further Proof That 'Intellectual' 'Property' is Insanity

Roy Schestowitz came up with this when s/he headbutted the keyboard a moment
ago in comp.os.linux.advocacy:

> Indonesia Stops Sharing Avian Virus Samples
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | "Indonesia has apparently decided to play the IP game, with the world's 
> | health at stake.... can't we come up with some GPL'ish license to
> | free any product based on this data?"
> `----
> 
> http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/08/1743249&from=rss
> 
> FAA Attempts to Loosen Grip on Abandoned Vintage Aircraft Data
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | "...existing laws restricted FAA's ability to release such data because
> | it was deemed to be intellectual property even though the owner of
> | record had long since ceased to exist. This proposed legislation
> | will go a long way toward helping owners and mechanics gather the
> | information they need to maintain these historic aircraft."
> `----
> 
> http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/08/1743249&from=rss
> 
> 
> Related:
> 
> Salt and Software
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | This broad ruling is being exploited by some to force developing nations
to 
> | add stringent controls and to enforce many controversial requirements.
[1]
> | [2] This includes patent clauses that prevent and impede the manufacture 
> | of generic AIDS/cancer/malaria medications. This despite the fact that 
> | generics are recognized as an essential tool in preventing and
controlling 
> | the effect of these crippling diseases and disastrous epidemics. [1, 2,
3]. 
> | Appalling. But let us not digress.
> |
> | [...]
> |
> | Because of TRIPS, you may now be in infringement of this patent. Are
> | you using a hash table in your code? You may now be in infringement
> | of this patent.
> |  
> | It is sad that we as developers have to worry about these issues. We
> | are not lawyers or legislators and share no overwhelming desire to
> | be involved in those fields. One does not need accreditation in patent
> | law to realize that these too-loosely defined laws can be exploited
> | by some megacorporations to impinge upon the ablity of others to
> | compete with them. The vast majority of our corporations in
> | developing nations are small to medium sized. We simply cannot
> | afford the battalions of lobbyists and lawyers and legal costs
> | associated with G8 style campaigns.
> | 
> | So. Shouldn't our legislators in developing nations be questioning
> | these laws? How is it in the interests of our populations, our
> | businesses, our industries and our economies, to be beholden to
> | these laws? I believe many of our non-monopolist counterparts in
> | G8 nations share our concerns.
> `----
> 
> http://www.localfoss.org/Salt_And_Software
> 
> 
> Scrooge and intellectual property rights
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | A medical prize fund could improve the financing of drug
> | innovations
> | 
> | At Christmas, we traditionally retell Dickens's story of Scrooge,
> | who cared more for money than for his fellow human beings. What 
> | would we think of a Scrooge who could cure diseases that blighted
> | thousands of people's lives but did not do so? Clearly, we would
> | be horrified. But this has increasingly been happening in the name 
> | of economics, under the innocent sounding guise of "intellectual
> | property rights."
> `----
> 
> http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7582/1279

To be honest, I can't see a problem with a country's government saying to a
patent troll company "Fuck you, you're not trading here" and allowing local
business to innovate their own versions of the patented technology and
trade within that country without fear of getting sued - after all, the
patent troll has no market where he's not allowed to trade, right?

Right?

The endgame is that the independent developer in that country can develop
what the hell he likes, the patent troll suddenly looks like he's standing
still.
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