The problem with patents and copyrights.
on the surface both patents and copyrights seem like good ideas. Especially for something like hardware, examples:
Planes, engines, catapults, pulleys, computer processors.
The problem is as I’ll show with examples and commentary, with patents and copyrights for “hardware†or “software†(and everything in between), is that current copy protection and patents themselves are so restrictive that they prevent the evolution of new ideas from old ideas, the very basis of how we’ve gotten as far as we have.
First Example:
The wright brothers after their first flight spent the next seven years in litigation, fighting people who “were infringing on their patentâ€. (improving their idea!)
“Yet at the same time, it is only fair to note that in the next seven years, the Wrights did almost as much to set aviation back as they had done to bring it forward. Two elements were involved in this retrograde process. The first was their litigious nature, which caused them to sue anyone they suspected was infringing on their patent-and since virtually everyone in the business of flying was doing so, this meant a lot of legal action. The second factor was in their careful protection of their patent, they were not inclined to introduce changes into their basic aircraft design. They feared that doing so would imply that improvements could be made to their Flyer, and thus open avenues for others to evade their patent. They also possessed a considerable degree of self-satisfaction, sincerely believing that their Flyer was the best approach to flight. (This would be manifest later, when a long series of fatal accidents marred the Wright aircraft reputation, with the Wrights insisting that the problem lay in [what else?] “pilot error.” )†-1
patents a good way to protect your invention, or a good way to show how greedy you are?
This is what I’ll go over next.
While Patents sound good on paper, a good way to protect your “idea†from being sold by someone else, in reality they are used to create a monopoly and to hold back the evolutive process of continuing development of said processes. I mean think about an idea that’s patented, it’s not like the idea is SO unique that no one else would’ve ever come up with that idea, like for example – the crystal oscillator pressure sensor made by a company called Digiquartz. A very simple idea and well known, but the company was issued a patent, and was allowed 10+ years to reign a monopoly in the market of quartz pressure sensors. They could charge whatever they wanted, give crappy customer service, it didn’t matter, they had the market from their patent. - 2
Then we’ll jump into the future (maybe momentarily, depends on the momentum of my thoughts!) and discuss file formats.
next we’ll discuss the patented file format GIF.
GIF, uses a compression routine known as LZW. This was a patented routine by a company known as Unisys. Compuserve developers got a hold of the routine through a coding magazine published in the mid 80’s. They had no idea the software was patented. So over the next several years many software houses incorporated GIF into their programs reading and writing not knowing the coming storm.
In 94 Unisys entered into talks with compuserve to licensce the GIF file format. This sent shockwaves through the community, and the initial reaction was to dump all your GIF’s for other formats. Would Unisys pursue patent rights over all entities that used the LZW routine?
the answer is yes.
Now let’s imagine that, the patent talks never happened. LZW probably could’ve been improved upon to offer even better lossless compression. Unisys could’ve headed such efforts and been known for something truly great. But because they decided to take the “greed†route, they are known for nearly shutting down an image format.
Of course had they not done that, other great formats wouldn’t have been developed, like PNG.
The point though, when making software you could right 400,000 lines of code for your software project and chances are without even looking at a patented project, at least 30,000 lines are similar enough that patent courts could force the software to be re-written removing those 30,000 lines of code.
Now we’ll head into copyrights. Copyrights in and of themselves were a good idea, they gave you credit for your creation, and allowed others not to photocopy your works and re-sell them. all perfectly valid for the pre-digital age.
That age is gone. It’s now easy to share ALL information related copyrights, and the easier it becomes the more scared the industry that relies on releasing the same crap becomes.
Let’s say you buy a piece of software and you want to give it to a friend, who can’t afford it. with current copyright law (dictated by large corps like RIAA, Microsoft etc.) you would be breaking the law and subject to severe penalties. While this may not seem like a big deal, like “how will they find out I gave it to my friend?â€. well by changing the way they distribute software and by changing software protections to become increasingly potent.
For example Windows XP – Registration scheme. In the past you had a choice wether to provide your name and address to a company. I mean we all know what they do with that right? sell it for marketing data, track us, etc. so who in their right mind would give away their personal information for free? well now you have to. and if you don’t it deactivates the product for you. Now think about that.
If you bought a new car brought it home, and a little reminder popped up in the corner of the radio telling you to register your car, would you pay attention to it? What if you didnt’ register your car and after the 30 days your car would no longer start?
Think that’s farfetched? not as much as you think. It won’t be long before cars with advanced operating systems become a reality. Do we want Draconian controls over that software?
Piracy. Is it a reality? no. very simply any money they report as “lost†is money that if the piracy didnt’ exist they wouldnt’ have had anyways. Do you think they would spend 50 dollars versus 10 for the pirated copy? no. The pirate enables those who can’t afford it the ability to listen, enjoy or watch something they otherwise would not have access to. Any corporation claiming money loss? why do we even listen? I mean it’s not like they are sieving money. Multi-billion dollar, multi-national corporations?
Now I’ll talk about the less obvious problems with copyrights. The lack of evolution.
Software evolution. remember my example with the wright bros plane? well software is much the same way, open source is currently evolving 10X the rate of closed source software. And this will be an exponential rate as more and more people become involved in open source. Closed source software is stagnant. only the people in the company can see the code because the code is considered a “trade secretâ€. Imagine if windows was open source? I imagine all the gaping security holes would’ve been plugged long ago, because the whole world would be able to see them. But because it is closed they leave the holes in.
Yes you read that right, Companies are intentionally leaving backdoors in their software.
DRM. Digital Rights Management.
One of the most ironic things about the DRM is that it is bandied about with terms like “fair-useâ€. Who determines what fair use is? not you the “owner†of the software (music, movie, game, etc.) you’ve purchased. The industry is pushing for a subscription plan that you pay them a monthly fee to use their software. And with the DRM they are able to track you even better. every piece of software you buy has your information stored in the header. You share it to your poor friend now, they go online the software tattles and your screwed.
but I think that the DRM will kill itself. Even if people don’t take immediate action, they will only be pushed so far when it comes to their money. I mean do you really want to lease everything from a large corporation? can you imagine having to pay a monthly maintence fee to listen to your iTunes songs? no? not too far away!
(for those of you wondering these maintenance fees would be on top of the fees to download the item for local use.)
what do you think?
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recently Quartzonix has released a crystal pressure sensor to compete with Digiquartz, as DQ did no renew their patent. but, no one knows the Quartzonix name so regardless of wether they’ve improved upon the patent or offer better service it’s unlikely they’ll ever become a competitor to DQ.
), and a few more that would make you nuts.
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