Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 23:36:57 -0700 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: cjclark@alum.mit.edu Cc: Salvo Bartolotta <bartequi@neomedia.it>, Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com>, "P. U. (Uli) Kruppa" <root@pukruppa.de>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Use of the UNIX Trademark Message-ID: <3BC53E09.21D410C0@mindspring.com> References: <000601c15084$87edd360$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> <1002663600.3bc36eb096ee5@webmail.neomedia.it> <20011009231343.C387@blossom.cjclark.org> <1002731960.3bc479b899603@webmail.neomedia.it> <20011010140126.M387@blossom.cjclark.org>
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"Crist J. Clark" wrote: [ ... ] > We tend to think of science being a field where everyone > is just looking for a chance to share all of their thoughts with > everyone else. That's the ideal. This is not how it always worked nor > how it has ever worked. Great mathematicians (e.g. Newton) closely > guarded their discoveries and methods from the rest of the world until > _they_ were ready to release it. You couldn't use Newton's discoveries > for quite a while after he discovered them since he didn't let them > out right away. Knowing Newton's personality, he might have applied > for patents if could have. [ ... ] It's rather widely accepted folklore these days that Feynman solved some of his problems using Clifford Algebras, and left them out of documentation as "trivial intermediate steps" in order to intimidate his competitors. With Clifford Algebras, it's actually very easy to solve a set of Feynman-Dyson diagrams (note how we now leave Freeman Dyson off the credits these days, and simply call them "Feynman diagrams"), whereas the math is very hard to do the traditional way -- even though you eventually get the answer, and Feynman gets a mystical reputation for both uncanny correctness, and the ability to do complex math in much less time than anyone else. Patents and copyrights were invented to encourage authors and inventors to disclose their work, rather than keeping it to themselves. The U.S. Constitution states "...secure for a limited time..." -- the emphasis here on "limited". Intellectual property isn't real property... I keep hoping that some court somewhere (at an apellate level, where binding case law is made) will treat it as real property. Not because I think IP law needs to be made stronger, but because then I can engage in adverse use, and, not being stopped from such use, establish a prescriptive lien, where I now have rights to use the "property". Just like if I park my car in front of your house for 5 years, and then you decide to buy an RV and tell me to not park there any more so you can park your RV: the fact that you didn't stop me for the 5 years previous means that I have established an interest in that parking spot. I would dearly love to see "squatter's rights" applied to DeCSS or some similar intellectual "property"... -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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