For the reasons listed below, your post is full of misunderstandings and
fallacies.
> Your post is a good description of a scientist at work, but this scientist
> had access to most of the tools needed in science. But think now how
> he must feel, to go to work and to discover that the use of light in all
> directions, at all speeds, and the basics of accelerators used to produce
> that light have all been patented
Natural processes, laws, substances, etc. cannot be patented. Only INVENTIONS can be patented. Only particular uses or means of generating natural things are patentable. Further, patents expire after a reasonable length of time, releasing the invention for ALL to use.
> and the expressions describing all of
> the discovery were copyrighted
Copyrights only prevent copying. Copyrights do NOT protect facts, which is what a scientist is concerend with. Thus, as long as the scientist does not actually copy somebody else's text or work, he is free to use his own words to describe whatever he wants.
> and that nearly everything he does will be
> restricted because the prior patents prevent effective access to
> the future.
See above. Patents expire, and don't protect natural laws and discoveries.
> Not being able to build on the past, because of prior patents, is
> damnable.
Again, patents expire within 20 years. Further, one CAN build on an existing patent. Improvements of patented devices are patented all the time. Patents don't stop progress. In fact, the opposite is clearly true: Patents PROMOTE progress.
> What a terrible difference patents and copyrights make on the
> truly inventive mind.
Yes, they make it possible for the inventive mind to PROFIT by their inventions. What a wonderful thing!
> Where money and even the world are not important,
> only "access to the equipment and to the findings of the past" are the
> cause that drives the inventive mind to exploit the present for the
> knowledge of the future".
What about paying his bills and feeding his family? I think that money is always a consideration.
> In the laboratory: i cannot pour A into B to make C because the
> process to both A and B are patented,
If you purchase A and B from a legitimate supplier, you have every right to make C.
> the materials to explain how to
> make A and B are copyrighted but not widely publihed in journals that cost
> more than I have the money to buy,
Then go to the library, look them up, and write down the formula in your own words. Not likely a copyright violation and it solves your dilemma.
> not only that C when made by the
> process of mixing A into B is also patented.
So find a NEW way to make C, or purchase it from a legitimate source. Or wait until the patent expires. Or get a license to make C. Or improve C, and cross license the improvement....
> All I needed this moment was
> C to make some G. So i spent the next six years figuring out how to make C
> from two new ligands y and x.
Or you could have bought C from a legitimate supplier.
> The C I made is not exactly the same and it
> turns out it will not make the kind of G that A poured into B would have
> made.
Perhaps you get an IMPROVEMENT.
> 6 years of my life divided by 60 years of useful life is 10% of my
> life wasted on something that could have been done in a few moments, had
> it not been for patent and copyright law,
Copyright law was no impediment.
> further, because I work for a
> corporation, the non-human, not I, owns the new process of y+X=c.
Not if you invented it on your own time.
> Some
> say that is not slavery? I wonder do they consider it bondage?
I call it a total misunderstanding of how patents and copyrights work, and what they cover. The United States has had strong patent and copyright laws for over 100 years, and we have become the most productive nation on earth. Ever think that maybe the first CAUSED the second? At the very least, the IP laws have not harmed our nations productivity in intellectual pursuits, that much is clear. You identify a scenario that is CLEARLY not supported by reality.
-Bodi Received on Wed Feb 12 2003 - 23:55:52 GMT
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