KrispyKritter: Copying other peoples efforts sure did put Asia in the black.

Yup.

Following contacts of metropolitan China with nomadic western border territories in the 8th century BC, gold was introduced from Central Asia, and Hotan Kashteshi Hotan jade carvers began to make imitation designs of the steppes, adopting the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes (depictions of animals locked in combat). This style is particularly reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze with alternate versions in jade and steatite.

Thou Shalt Not Copy is a very modern idea.

why recreate the wheel?

This is why I hate the Apple patents lawsuits. Someone making a UI list "bounce" is really little different to a chef fooling around with presentation or mixing ingredients and finding something. A few days, maybe a few weeks work to get there. Not the same thing as a completely original invention that took true genius or inspiration to work out, or millions of dollars of investment.

There shouldn't be millions of patents, because there aren't millions of patent-worthy inventions. If it doesn't make people say "god damn, that's clever", it's not worthy.

Most software developers actually work like chefs, though. You can download jQuery for free, Ruby on Rails for free, but the guys who created these things get the kudos. Companies want to hire them in future.

farkeruk: This is why I hate the Apple patents lawsuits. Someone making a UI list "bounce" is really little different to a chef fooling around with presentation or mixing ingredients and finding something. A few days, maybe a few weeks work to get there. Not the same thing as a completely original invention that took true genius or inspiration to work out, or millions of dollars of investment.

Right - it was so obvious before that everyone was doing it. True design and innovation takes a lot of work and effort. Constant retooling and retesting. The notion that this was a "few days of work" just tells me you haven't a clue what goes into creating a product.

Also - Samsung has revenue of 247.5 BILLION and instead of spending the money coming up with something new (like Microsoft did) - they took the cowards way out and stole it from Apple.

KrispyKritter: Copying other peoples efforts sure did put Asia in the black. And look at what it does for America to not copy other countries success in health care, education, crime prevention, prisoner rehabilitation etcetera.

Some think U.S. got it's biggest economic boost through industrial espionage at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Probably not, there was a lot of migration between countries that would have transferred knowledge, but it is an interesting idea.

I have often thought the patent process is outdated. Maybe a more open model would work better. Rather than granting exclusive rights to an inventor, only ensure royalties to the inventor, and let anyone that wants to use an invention do so. How to regulate that might be a bit of a problem though.

(shrug) heck if I really know

Curiously absent from the article: Vanilla Ice ripping off Queen.

Well to be fair in the food world you have a lot of great head chefs that will take someone less experienced and show them how they do things. You are just expected to teach that person or others the next really good trick you figure out. Everyone thrives and everyone stays on top of their game. That'd never work in business, no you can't help and be helped by competitors that never happens in real life.

MrEricSir: Curiously absent from the article: Vanilla Ice ripping off Queen.

That sort of thing had been done already. One could argue that "innovation" by future white rappers was spurred by the Beastie Boys, who ripped off a few samples from Led Zeppelin.

Of course, they admitted up front to rhymin' and stealin'.

gingerjet: farkeruk: This is why I hate the Apple patents lawsuits. Someone making a UI list "bounce" is really little different to a chef fooling around with presentation or mixing ingredients and finding something. A few days, maybe a few weeks work to get there. Not the same thing as a completely original invention that took true genius or inspiration to work out, or millions of dollars of investment.

Right - it was so obvious before that everyone was doing it. True design and innovation takes a lot of work and effort. Constant retooling and retesting. The notion that this was a "few days of work" just tells me you haven't a clue what goes into creating a product.

Also - Samsung has revenue of 247.5 BILLION and instead of spending the money coming up with something new (like Microsoft did) - they took the cowards way out and stole it from Apple.

And who did Apple steal it from?

If Android is a "stolen product," then so was the iPhone

I'm just going to leave this here:

The Case for Copyright Reform

It's a very readable book with some great essays that describe the problems with the way things are, and its policy solutions are supported by the Greens-EFA group in the European parliament.

And if you're against copyright reform, you should read it to understand what you're fighting against, because these are the central arguments to what you're fighting against and they're explained very clearly, and you can't win if you don't know your enemy. :)