Authored by: scottt on Thursday, December 11 2003 @ 11:39 AM CST

Well, if you're going to put it that way... I have a great interest in patents and copyrights as they apply to freedom. I know that one day someone will challenge something that I feel I clearly have the rights to, but I don't believe in patents. I'm sure that will get me in trouble one day. Anyway, a debate between a pragmatist and a freedom fighter is not entertainment. I watched Eric Raymond and Richard Stallman disagree on stage one time, and everyone in the room got agitated, some got up and left, and the benefits are dubious. I also saw a kickboxer fighting a Brazillian Jui-jitsu fighter. It's a bit boring for the same reason - they are not playing the same game so it's hard for either one to get anything done. I think that getting patents to prevent others from getting patents is mostly useless, but if someone else wants to waste their energy on it, go ahead. Remember when Verizon went on strike during the domain-squatting heyday a couple years ago? Verizon management wanted to prevent backlash via the Internet so they registered some domains like verizonsucks.com and verizonreallysucks.com so that the union members could not get them. Then somebody put up a site at verizonreallyreallysucks.com. You can't win the game by getting there first - that isn't how patents work. they have become a clever way of preventing others from doing business, which will always be possible no matter what patents you register. Unless of course, nobody registers any.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.