Re: Chapter on Open Source in Friedman's _The World is Flat_

Brian Behlendorf wrote:

> He spends two pages talking about patents; that patents act as a barrier 
> to collaboration, particularly across international lines, and that laws 
> passed to "protect IP" need to not be so onerous as to prevent such 
> collaboration.  He says "the free-software person in all of us wants no 
> patents", which is probably an unfair characterization but he uses it to 
> denote one end of a spectrum of considerations.  And he does describe it 
> in the context of vested interests vs. upstart competitors.


   I guess I am one of those people who believe that the temporary 
monopoly offered by patents make sense where there is physical 
manipulations of nature (and the resulting up-front costs and barriers 
to market entry), but do not make sense in pure intangibles such as 
software and business models.  One of the things that frustrate me about 
these conversations is the mistake that this is an "all or nothing" 
thing, and that those of us who oppose information/mental process 
patents also oppose hardware and/or pharmaceutical patents.

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  http://www.digital-copyright.ca/blog/2 (My BLOG)
  Sign the Petition Users' Rights! http://digital-copyright.ca/petition/
  To protect Internet age creativity we must reform WIPO, not copyright!