Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Intellectual "property" garbage

Sometimes people are dumb about asserting copyright, patent, etc. rights. Like someone patenting the iPhone, after it was invented. Although the courts continue to make it harder to get a patent. In particular, the courts may undo the ruling that made it possible to patent "business methods" and software algorithms. Which I think is a good thing these days, a proper swing of the pendulum back towards sanity.

And recently, REM was inspired by Improv Everywhere, and made a video where a bunch of people froze. And now they're arguing, and others are arguing, about who stole the idea from whom. Which is sad because no one really has the copyright on a bunch of people suddenly freezing in a room. Like Apple and Microsoft debating who stole from Xerox first, the world could benefit from more public domain. More ideas just being cool ideas anyone can riff on, rather than every idea ever described belonging to someone.

No comments: