Eric Hines wrote:
Actually, the concept of patents and copyrights is a good one
I'd agree about copyrights, but not patents. I think that getting a monopoly on an IDEA is ridiculous.
--it compensates the inventor(s) for their efforts, and so spurs innovation
I've never seen any evidence that granting a monopoly over an idea (patents) spur innovation. And I have seen a lot of evidence to the contrary. Putting roadblocks in the sharing of ideas inhibits progress, since all ideas are based on relatively small modifications of old ones.
--the performance of the open source community notwithstanding.
And the scientific community, which is much older, by several hundred years. Cheers, Daniel. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
