The Evils of Intellectual Property

I highly recommend listening to this lecture.

He makes some interesting points. I thought the point about Fashion was especially interesting, it’s a whole industry that exists without patents or copyrights, yet is extremely vibrant and successful. To my mind, cooking would also be an example of an industry where copyright is pretty much non-existent, and yet the cooking industry flourishes quite nicely.

I didn’t know the Wright Brothers were patent trolls who severely retarded the US aircraft industry to the point where the US had to buy planes from other countries for years.

This makes me think of the story Melancholy Elephants by Spider Robinson, which is also about the dangers of copyrights and patents to society. You can read it here on his website.

(thanks Rick for the link!)

(this is an audio track, there is no real video with it)

Edit: here’s a video recommended below by Brushmen which expands on the Fashion and Copyright issue:

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