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description of patents.
author Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:47:39 +0000
parents e4ee3818a033
children d5b95ca78266
comparison
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14:e4ee3818a033 15:bffd7519431c
15 you create a work in some permanent form; you don't have to request 15 you create a work in some permanent form; you don't have to request
16 it or anything. It lets you prevent other people from copying your 16 it or anything. It lets you prevent other people from copying your
17 work, reading your work, or creating derivitave works based on your 17 work, reading your work, or creating derivitave works based on your
18 work. 18 work.
19 19
20 20 Thus, copyright is what I call a "negative force". It is something
21 that you use to prevent the flow of information; it lets you remove
22 the abilities of other people to use "your" information.
23
21 * GPL uses copyright as a positive force 24 * GPL uses copyright as a positive force
22 25
23 * Patents generally an inhibitive force. 26 The genius of the GPL license is that it takes the negative force of
27 copyright and turns it on its head. With the GPL, copyright can be
28 used to enable freedom, and ensure peoples' rights to freely use
29 your information. The GPL essentially reads:
24 30
31 #+begin_quote
32 This work is copyrighted, but by recieving this work you gain the
33 rights to distribute, copy, and make derivitave works based on this
34 work, but only if you also license such work under this license.
35 #+end_quote
36
37 The requirement for using the GPL in derivative works makes the GPL
38 "infectious", which means the GPL will "contaminate" all derivative
39 works with itself. This ensures that even after many many
40 alterations, the modified work will still respect its users'
41 freedoms the same as the original work.
42
43 * Patents, like copyright, are normally a negative force
44
45 Patents, unlike copyright, are something you must request from the
46 government. You are only supposed to be able to get a patent for a
47 "novel" idea, which is an idea that wouldn't be obvious to someone
48 working in the relevant field. A patent can be for the plans to a
49 physical object ("regular" patents), an algorithm (software patent),
50 of a way of doing something (process patent). Once you have a
51 patent, it gives you the ability to stop anyone else from using your
52 idea in any other invention. This is supposed to give you a
53 temporary monopoly to help you make money off your invention before
54 anyone else would be legally allowed to do so. In practce, many
55 patents are given for ideas that are quite obvious to pretty much
56 everyone. For example, Amazon has a patent (#[[http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F5715399][5,715,399]]) on the idea
57 of presenting a coustomer with the last four digits of a credit card
58 instead of displaying the entire numbner. Amazon can sue any other
59 company that displays only the last four digits of a credit card
60 number and prevent them from using that method unless they pay
61 Amazon a lot of money. Needless to say, there are many patents that
62 are very silly.
63
64 Now, I choose a particurally silly patent, but the point is that
65 patents can be a great force for the retardation of progress. Many
66 silly patents have been issued, and a patent lasts for 17 years. For
67 almost any idea, there will be some patent that will cover your
68 idea, and then the entity that owns that patent can prevent you from
69 selling products based on that idea /or even giving products based
70 on that idea away for free/.
71
72 ** Patents are treated as physical objects
73 They can be sold, seized, etc. This is because the government wants
74 new inventions to actually be made available to the public. The idea
75 here is that if you are an inventor and you obtain a patent on a
76 cool invention, but are unable/unwilling to develop an commercial
77 product, you can sell that patent to some company and give them the
78 exclusive rights to make that invention.
79
80 ** Patents are arranged in a dependency network
81
25 Patents are usually a negative force, one that allows you to stop 82 Patents are usually a negative force, one that allows you to stop
26 other entities from using knowledge to their own advantage. 83 other entities from using knowledge to their own advantage.
27 84
28 * Google has created "neutral" patents via a pledge which attaches conditions to its patents. 85 * Google has created "neutral" patents via a pledge which attaches conditions to its patents.
29 Google has a pledge at 86 Google has a pledge at