From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Thu Jul 18 2002 - 14:05:25 MDT
>From: Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com>
>I think of ideas more as children. I may have created them and
>nurtured them (and I may get to exploit their labor for a short
>time :-) but once they grow up they are fully autonomous and I no
>longer have any right to control--nor can I even imagine--what
>might become of them.
I see ideas completely differently.
>Which is the greater evil, that ideas get made and marketed,
>possibly profiting the people who did the marketing more than the
>creator, or that ideas never get to market no matter how good they
>are and don't get to make anyone rich?
I have decided that some of my ideas are not free and unless I can
profit from them I see no reason to reveal them.
>> I have other ideas which would be every bit as popular,
>> (moneymaking) but it will be a cold day in hell before I share
>> them.
>And this is an argument /for/ IP? If your ideas can be stolen
>under the present system anyway, wouldn't it be better if that
>were everyone's expectation in the first place, so that people
>knew they had to be careful and sign NDAs and such while looking
>for people to do all the other work of making money on the idea,
>or else do all the other work themselves?
Sometimes a secret is better than a patent. Take Coca-Cola for
example, it's essence is still a closely guarded secret, and Coke
continues to profit.
I'll give you another example.
Let's say I can lick the remaining problems and find the funding to
actually finish the development of my little CNC derived
Nanolithographic assembler I call a nanoprinter.
The world will never hear of it, no article will ever appear in any
journal. Brian's magic box will sit quietly at home turning carbon
into small (less than 1.5 carat) diamonds complete with random
microflaws (perfect stones would attract attention and possibly
reveal the tech) which will be turned into a quietly handsome
profit by myself and my Hasidic associates.
Lack of IP can inhibit societies advancement.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
SBC/Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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