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Re: Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Tall order. I actually feel compelled to argue. The point to patents is that they do expire in a short time, and while they do slow down progress, and securing a monopoly on something is anti-competitive in one sense, but another sense it does reward someone for investing in R&D with a potentially long return, and I think that is good, in the abstract. The details are pesky. As one example - I happen to think the mp3 patent and the various patents around echo cancellation by companies like polycom are valid. I still haven't met a business method patent I liked, and most software patents I have had the dubious honor to encounter are more annoying than useful. I'd like to see low cost patent clearinghouses, much like we see copyright clearinghouses, so ordinary people and free software can pay what dues are required to do what we do. Implemented broadly the costs would be low. ESR is working on an idea like this. Most of my bitches about the patent system are that it should cost enough for one to pay for an adaquate search for prior art by the government and the public, and the filing and challenge system adjusted to harness the power of the Internet. If your god is progress at any cost, I'm still unsure if eliminating the patent system is a good idea. Innovations like the Open Invention network seem to be a reasonable bullwark against frivolous patent portfolios. I'm more concerned about the absurd length of copyright than the current abuses of the patent system. So while we're writing letters to Santa: My christmas wish would be to see the copyright law of 1909 restored: 1) 14 years, renewable once. Research conducted by myself and by Richard Posner indicated that 85% of all copyrights, while we still had the renewal system in place, were not renewed. It only enriches lawyers to lock everything up for effectively forever, and IMHO, holds back progress far more than the patent system. 2) Copyright reverting to and renewable only by the original author, as well. (pre 1920 rules) This would do a lot to prevent abuses of creators in their early years. Take a look at the differences at a typical author's contract (rights of first publication and the like) and a typical musician's contract (ve 0wn you), and realize that the author's contract is based on social convention dating back to the Statute of Anne, and a musician's contract to copyright post 1920. 3) Registration of unencrypted sources with the copyright office (and a fee) required to secure copyright. Copyright would benefit from borrowing from the patent system, if the above central resource assigned a copyright number to works registered with it. I think both of us are unlikely to get our wishes, but it never hurts to ask Santa for anything. Bonus link: a little rant about Windows Vista and copyright in general. (I will light a candle in celebration when the mp3 patent expires in 2010 - until then, I make oggs, and feel a twinge of guilt everytime I encode an mp3 with no system in place to reward the original creator)
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