FC4 or FC5

[Todd Zullinger]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

bruce wrote:
> ip related patents are not a bad thing. the patent office should do
> a much better job of looking, and evaluating based on prior art.

Good luck getting that to happen.  Government isn't geared toward
efficient or useful service.  But then, I think of them as leaches, so
perhaps I'm biased.  Just read all the patents for things like
"one-click shopping" and you'll know just how far out of their league
the patent office is.

> you of course have a right to go out and try to recreate the same
> thing, without infringing my  patent... you can then decide what you
> want to do with what you've created...
> 
> but you don't have the right to simply take what i've created.. and
> to do whatever you want... if you think you should have that right,
> let me know where you live so i can come and take your
> car/stereo/ipod/etc...

There's a fundamental difference there.  In the case of you taking
someone's car/stereo/ipod, that person is no longer able to use that
property.  It can have only one owner.  If you could come to my house
and make an exact copy of my car/stereo/ipod so that you and I would
both now have it, then there's not so much of a problem.  IP isn't
real property and you can't make proper analogies to real property.

Another thing is that patents expire and most who support patents
don't argue that this should change.  but if IP is like real property,
then why should it ever expire?  My right to own and control my real
property (car/stereo/ipod/etc) only expire when I choose to transfer
it to someone else.

- -- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xD654075A | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
======================================================================
The Constitution continues to remain no threat to our current form of
government.
    -- Joseph Sobran

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: When crypto is outlawed bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

iG0EARECAC0FAkSO5domGGh0dHA6Ly93d3cucG9ib3guY29tL350bXovcGdwL3Rt
ei5hc2MACgkQuv+09NZUB1oTAgCfVjfQjQ8dzF60uphMwNHL+UGk9DkAniO7VKs/
XIAclHJld+rM21iuOUB6
=SXo8
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----