[p2p-research] CAD files at The PIrate Bay? (Follow up)

[Kevin Carson]

On 10/21/09, Stan Rhodes <stanleyrhodes at gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't understand what you mean by "enter the picture."  Patents can and
> will be used to destroy competition, which I figured was the main reason
> small manufacturers might want a pool of them.  If you mean that you don't
> see any good reason for small manufacturers to try to get state-enforced
> monopolies themselves, then yes, I don't see it helping them at all.

I just meant that the orginal debate at Ponoko (or was it Make?) blog
strikes me as moot, considering that patents probably aren't worth the
cost for a garage manufacturer who doesn't produce in large enough
batches to amortize the cost.

One reason garage manufacturers are likely to eat the lunch of
old-line mass production industry is their extremely low capital
outlay requirements, which mean they can afford to switch between
small batches on a JIT basis, and the product lines that aren't
popular aren't the source of any fixed costs (like capital outlay for
patenting) that have to be serviced.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html