We don't need patents in any industries at all if you judge them based upon their original intent -- to further the public knowledge
Good to see this one mentioned. Most people seem to forget that the original intent for all "IP-laws" originally was to broaden the public knowledge and to ultimately benefit the public.
That private entities was incentivized with limited monopolies which they could use to profit was merely a means, not the goal. These days everyone takes for granted that the means is the goal and the original goal is long forgotten.
If the original intent hadn't been forgotten as well as it has at this point, I doubt we would have seen the massive expanse of "IP-laws" which we have seen these last decades. Heck, back in the days there was no such thing as "IP". People were rational enough to realize there is no such thing as "intellectual property" which you can possess in a meaningful way.
Copyright law, patent-law and all these "IP-laws" should be reverted back to their original intent. Unfortunately that is not going to happen.
The US has way too much invested in so called "intellectual property" to go back on this now. Look at the US these days. What brings in the money? Traditional industry? All gone. Manufacturing? All outsourced.
In fact all the US has left of value is "intellectual property". Think Microsoft, Apple, Google and Hollywood. Now imagine the current US without the likes of those, or a world where their "property" could be had by anyone at no cost. Where would the US be then?
For all the bad things IP laws brings about (and don't get me wrong, I do think they are bad) there is a reason the US (and mostly the US) is pushing so hard on copyright-law and patent-law and trying to divert us from their original intent by instilling the idea of "intellectual property" as a legitimate one in the public mind.
Right now, this so called "intellectual property" is the only thing the US have left.
Good to see this one mentioned. Most people seem to forget that the original intent for all "IP-laws" originally was to broaden the public knowledge and to ultimately benefit the public.
That private entities was incentivized with limited monopolies which they could use to profit was merely a means, not the goal. These days everyone takes for granted that the means is the goal and the original goal is long forgotten.
If the original intent hadn't been forgotten as well as it has at this point, I doubt we would have seen the massive expanse of "IP-laws" which we have seen these last decades. Heck, back in the days there was no such thing as "IP". People were rational enough to realize there is no such thing as "intellectual property" which you can possess in a meaningful way.
Copyright law, patent-law and all these "IP-laws" should be reverted back to their original intent. Unfortunately that is not going to happen.
The US has way too much invested in so called "intellectual property" to go back on this now. Look at the US these days. What brings in the money? Traditional industry? All gone. Manufacturing? All outsourced.
In fact all the US has left of value is "intellectual property". Think Microsoft, Apple, Google and Hollywood. Now imagine the current US without the likes of those, or a world where their "property" could be had by anyone at no cost. Where would the US be then?
For all the bad things IP laws brings about (and don't get me wrong, I do think they are bad) there is a reason the US (and mostly the US) is pushing so hard on copyright-law and patent-law and trying to divert us from their original intent by instilling the idea of "intellectual property" as a legitimate one in the public mind.
Right now, this so called "intellectual property" is the only thing the US have left.