From: Dossy (dossy@panoptic.com)
Date: Sun Jun 09 2002 - 21:04:33 MDT
On 2002.06.09, Harvey Newstrom <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com> wrote:
> Because of the suppression of new ideas and the prevention of fair
> competition in a free market, I would call this unextropian. That is
> what I mean by suppressing open-market fair competition. They avoid
> the competition in the marketplace by sabotaging their opponents
> before their product reaches the market.
Without putting words in your mouth, isn't restricting the use of
new ideas ... unextropian?
In the same way people feel "silence is consent" -- isn't refusing
to let someone freely use your property also a way of supressing
open-market fair competition? Indirectly, you're sabotaging your
opponents ability to compete with you if you don't allow them to
leverage your technology.
We'd all do better if we stopped thinking that "people buy products"
and thus we must protect our technological advantage in the
marketplace and instead thought "people buy services" which might
include the use of products.
Nobody can take away your reputation for delivering high-quality,
friendly, prompt and professional service. Anyone can steal your
ideas and you can either let it happen or you can try to fight it
using legal tools -- instead, why not focus that energy and those
resources (time, money, etc.) towards improving the service you
deliver to your customers. When we speak of "customer loyalty"
you generally speak of loyalty to companies or brands, not to
specific models in their product line ...
This seems like really elementary stuff that obviously isn't as
elementary as I thought it should be ...
> >Could you clarify under what circumstances lawsuits to suppress
> >competition are extropian? And does it make a difference if the person
> >sueing sees it as a matter of defending his own property rights?
>
> When Luddites try to gain intellectual property rights and patents for
> the sole purpose of suppressing technology or preventing technological
> advancement, that is unextropian. When a bigger company buys out a
> superior smaller company just to destroy its superior product line
> rather than improving its own product or competing in the marketplace,
> that is unextropian. When a company brings a false allegation against
> another, with no basis in fact, just force delays and costs onto
> competitors, that is unextropian.
What about a company that gains intellectual property rights and
patents for something so they can sell license to it at prices outside
the range of many? Is this unextropian in your opinion?
-- Dossy
--
Dossy Shiobara mail: dossy@panoptic.com
Panoptic Computer Network web: http://www.panoptic.com/
"He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)
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