From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Date: Wed Dec 22 1999 - 09:56:30 MST
> On the one hand; it appears obvious that we need to encourage
> inventions. Inventions ultimately enhance everyone's quality of life.
> Figuring out a way to give inventors a financial advantage over imitators
> encourages invention; if they have no edge, and are also handicapped by
> having to fork out R&D costs that imitators are exempt from, invention
> is discouraged.
Why is it obvious that we should "encourage" anything? Isn't the
whole point of capitalism and free markets and all that that we just
let the system work naturally without encouraging anything? Why not
let the inventors' edge be just the fact that they are creative and
talented individuals who will be in demand by producers? And as I've
said before, R&D costs are a red herring--they're only high because
the patent system encourages long, expensive R&D cycles, not because
there's anything inherently good about such speculative spending.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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