NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/comp/sys/mac/programm/22061

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-24 | 1.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!gatech!rutgers!zeus.ieee.org!fsbbs!f620.n2605.z1.ieee.org!eric.larson
From: [e-mail] (eric larson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Why the Piracy? Here's why...
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 24 Jan 93 03:31:07 GMT
Sender: news
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 # Microsoft -- IMHO -- has never innovated, only copied, ripped off,
 # and so on. Our IP laws are paying people for doing bad things.

The problem is that you can't buy a C compiler for the Mac or MS-DOS from
AT&T. Whose mistake is that? Certainly not Microsoft's. Should we punish
Microsoft for filling a real need?

 # I wouldn't be surprised if this causes as much harm, in the long
 # term, as laws which benefit companies who move factories out of
 # the country and engage in leveraged takeovers and rationalizations,
 # all of which are slowly grinding the US economy into the dust.

One of the real problems the US has is that companies are inefficient in
bringing 'breakthrough' technologies to the marketplace. You DO NOT improve
this by making IP law protection for commercial technologies weaker, and
strengthen IP protection for basic R&D - this LESSENS the incentive to
commercialize a technology. The real benefit to an economy is from the
commercial enterprise - that is the manufacturing effort. The royalties on an
idea amount to a small percentage of the actual economic activity of the
manufacturing process.

--
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 eric larson - Internet: [e-mail]