From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261989AbTD2Q2E (ORCPT ); Tue, 29 Apr 2003 12:28:04 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262033AbTD2Q2E (ORCPT ); Tue, 29 Apr 2003 12:28:04 -0400 Received: from relay02.valueweb.net ([216.219.253.236]:1774 "EHLO relay02.valueweb.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261989AbTD2Q2D (ORCPT ); Tue, 29 Apr 2003 12:28:03 -0400 Message-ID: <3EAEAADC.9030903@coyotegulch.com> Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 12:39:56 -0400 From: Scott Robert Ladd User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.3) Gecko/20030327 Debian/1.3-4 X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Timothy Miller CC: James Bottomley , Larry McVoy , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Why DRM exists [was Re: Flame Linus to a crisp!] References: <1051466395.2427.62.camel@fuzzy> <3EAE85CB.9070000@techsource.com> In-Reply-To: <3EAE85CB.9070000@techsource.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Timothy Miller wrote: > I believe that it's very important that an author have rights to > profit exclusively from their creations. It gives them incentive to > create. I mean, if every time you developed some cool new > technology, some foreign company took it, made huge profits from it, > and left you with out a dime for all of your effort, wouldn't that > put a huge kink in your desire to expend that sort of effort? > > On the other hand, I don't believe people should rest on their > laurels. Limited rights is an incentive to get off one's behind and > create another thing. > > I think patent periods should be very strongly enforced and SHORT. > Like most of these patents that we think of as frivolous should be > allowed, but the time limit should be at most a year or two. Many of > these 'defensive' patents that companies like Amazon have are > actually good things because they ensure that these ideas go into the > public domain. If some patent is deemed particularly clever, then the > limit should be more like five years. > > I have mixed feelings on defensive patents. "Since I know that > you're going to patent what I'm already doing and then sue me over > it, I'm going to beat you to the punch and patent it to protect > myself." It makes sense in a very sad sort of way. I just want to "second" your excellent thoughts. Well said. ..Scott -- Scott Robert Ladd Coyote Gulch Productions (http://www.coyotegulch.com)