2006-07-08, 00:51
There seems to be some intelligence in North America. In Canada to be more specific. This is only the last article of quite a few on Canadian artists worrying about copyright. This is a little old, but still hilarious. Go CEA!
Here’s an article on Britain’s anti-terrorism policy. It pretty much confirms the worries I’ve had but haven’t been able to put my finger on.
You can always trust El Reg to report on the silliest things ever. Here’s an article on a futurologist’s prediction that men will lose out to robots. This can be shot down on so many levels it isn’t even funny. Except it is 
Ending with some funny stuff. A map of the Software Wars. I’ve recently discovered Humorix, this announcement on Microsoft’s plans for a DRM-oriented language had me laughing out loud.
2006-06-20, 06:32
Eric Flynn’s first column on copyright got me thinking. It’s a really good piece on copyright, but especially one thing jumped out and stuck in my mind:
Copyright is a privilege, not a right.
I believe basically a similar line of reasoning can be applied to patents.
Monopolies are evil.
Patents are government-sanctioned monopolies.
Hence, patents are evil.
However, the patent system is the best way we have to address an even bigger evil:
It’s so expensive to capitalise on an invention that only big companies can do it.
So to prevent this bigger evil we adopt a slightly lesser evil—the patent system. This doesn’t change the nature of it though, it’s still evil! Especially it means that expanding the area of what can be patented should be done with utmost care, because frivolous expansion brings a significant risk of harming society. In particular the burden of proof should be on the side that is seeking the expansion, not on the side arguing for the status quo.
