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Date:      Thu, 11 Oct 2001 00:01:21 -0700
From:      "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com>
To:        <tlambert2@mindspring.com>, <cjclark@alum.mit.edu>
Cc:        "Salvo Bartolotta" <bartequi@neomedia.it>, "P. U. (Uli) Kruppa" <root@pukruppa.de>, <freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   RE: Use of the UNIX Trademark
Message-ID:  <009c01c15222$884e8ee0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com>
In-Reply-To: <3BC53E09.21D410C0@mindspring.com>

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>-----Original Message-----
>From: Terry Lambert [mailto:tlambert2@mindspring.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 11:37 PM
>To: cjclark@alum.mit.edu
>Cc: Salvo Bartolotta; Ted Mittelstaedt; P. U. (Uli) Kruppa;
>freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
>Subject: Re: Use of the UNIX Trademark
>
>
>"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.
>

Of course - if said parking space is on the street, neither of
you has any right to be there as the street is owned by the
municipality, and most of them have "48 hour limit" ordinances
that while rarely enforced, do make it illegal for both of you
to claim an interest in the space.

Now, another interesting part to that - if IP was made real - then
it could be subject to property taxes.  That's a nasty thought! :-)

>I would dearly love to see "squatter's rights" applied to DeCSS
>or some similar intellectual "property"...
>

I think it's even more useful the way it is now - because it entices
the MPAA to waste money trying to shut it down.  As long as they are
out there chasing the Napsters of the world they are going to be
too preoccupied to actually develop some encryption that works right. :-)


Ted Mittelstaedt                                       tedm@toybox.placo.com
Author of:                           The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide
Book website:                          http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com



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