[MURG] Uploading IP (intellectual property)

[cat13 at illrepute.org]

Major <murg at audry2.com> writes:

> cat13 at illrepute.org writes:
> 
> > If you're suggesting that a subset of the required research is done and
> > kept proprietary, who will pick it up and do more?  Since it's proprietary,
> > the only group that can further it is the group that started it, which
> > leads to a single group funding the entirety of the project, which is not
> > reasonable.
> 
> This is not true if by "proprietary" you mean the current patent
> system or something like it.

The U. S. patent system is intended to protect inventions, not discoveries.
I can't argue that discoveries HAVEN'T been patented, but I would recommend
avoiding the practice.
In my mind, there is a clear delineation between research - discovering
natural information - and development - combining  discovered information
with skill/art to produce something.  It's only the research side which
inhibits future research when not shared.

> If someone else has a patent on X, it is still perfectly feasible to
> spend money developing Y which is dependent on X provided you can get
> a license to use X. This sort of thing happens under the present
> patent system all the time.

It's also perfectly feasible to prevent anyone else from developing Y
by refusing to license it.  If Y is vital to uploading, then no one but
you can allow uploading to go forward - and what happens if you go under?
Important advances are lost forever under the present patent system all
the time.

As long as your X invention is based on information which anyone else can
discover without paying you a license, then anyone else can develop an
alternative X which doesn't infringe upon yours, and you can't hold up
Y development.  If the information upon which X is based is closed, that
can't happen.