[Fsf-friends] Re: Patents / R&D

Praveen A pravi.a@gmail.com
Wed Mar 9 17:05:26 IST 2005


On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 18:18:48 -0800, Anand Babu <ab@gnu.org.in> wrote:
> ,----[ Sandip Bhattacharya <sandip@lug-delhi.org> ]
> | On Mon, 2005-03-07 at 20:44 +0200, Praveen A wrote:
> | > missing one important point in ur mail- Removal of patents may lead to
> | > the end of Reasearch and Development in the world.If there are no
> `----
> I think this is a ridiculous argument. Instead it should be correctly
> quoted as "Patents may lead to end of Research and Development".
> 
> In the last 8 years "free access to information", "open standards" and
> "free software" has truly revolutionized the Research and Development
> in various fields. Today we find scientists across the globe working
> collaboratively, sharing their ideas and knowledge. This is very
> crucial to the advancements in science and technology. Patents will
> divide them all and kill the innovation.
> 
> Just take AIDS scenario and compare these two cases:
>  1. Patent approach: Few scientists, Closed doors.
>  2. Community approach: Scientists across the world, Collaborative.
> 
> Second case has a better probability of find the cure. Results of the
> research will be open to all, there by making the medicine
> affordable. Whole mankind will benefit.
> 
> --
> Anand Babu
> Free as in Freedom <www.gnu.org>
> 

Pramod writes: http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi/13124.html

Interesting thoughts there. But I have to agree with the first person.
Development will slwo down without patents and   copyright and so on.
There are quite a few reasons why this might happen - a whole lot of
arguments are available on the net - so let me use this comment to
make few other points.

First about products like Firefox - firefox or other open source
products didnt appear out of the blue - perseverence  of companies
like IBM, Intel, Microsoft is what has led to the state where today
you and me have access to a computer and we could learn computing.
Without the vision of various public figures like Bill Gates or others
and not so public figures who created lots of technologies (it was
Bell Labs who started out with Unix - look at the no. of patents they
have!) the reality today would have been different.

Secondly, many of the individuals who create open source - they have
double lives. How do you think they survive -  just on donations? Now
dont give example of one developer per product - he or she may be able
to scratch enough out of donations to survive - but dont forget that
products like firefox are result of numerous man days of work. Most of
them are working on some patented product making money and very often
using resources from these ventures to support projects like firefox.
Think about this!

Now about money - is money everythign? The direct answer is - money is
nothing. But money evolved as a medium for economic transactions. Its
nothing more than that. And with the evolution of man, the complexity
of nature - its proved to be rather successful. Today I am able to do
what I enjoy and still able to have good food at home - withoug ever
having to step into a farm! Money certainly is helping me do that!

Again talk of free access to information or open standards helping R&D
- in a sense it has. But don't forget the amount of invisible
investment gone into it. A country invests in its universities if it
will lead to economic growth. I dont think one needs too much proof to
prove that there is connection in the economic well being a nations
people and the amount of investment in universities. And patents is a
way for universities to make sure that their work is being properly
commercialised.

I dont see how patents will divide researchers. Most patents today are
not held by individuals - but by groups.

One final note - like anything in this world - patents can be misused.
But just becuase it can be misused does not mean that it cannot be
used! And also like most other things, it is a compromise too - a
compromise that is acceptable to a wide variety of stakeholders in the
world.

What we need to do is work to make sure that the regime evolves to be
more robust in keeping with the requirements of the time. Not scrap it
because a group of people feels its restrictive.

Pramod: http://www.pramod.ch/

-- 
            "There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels."
A proud GNU user
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