Desktop platforms Toolkit

Story: Gates: Restricting IP rights is tantamount to communism

• 
• 

Brent. I would like to recommend you to do a lot more background research and fact finding before stating assumptions.

That "free market" of yours doesn't exist so assuming that only the greatest products at the best price can hope to corner such a market can't be true. And since it's also not the case that someone cornered the market by being able to deliver the greatest products at the best price time and time again your assumption that the public has derived an enormous benefit is also false. And yes, such business conduct has been found illegal in various countries each with different laws. Allowing such business conduct to continue (e.g.: by keeping the penalties for such business conduct to be less than the profits gained from such business conduct) would (does) hurt consumers and developers.

Back to the IP rights thingy. Bill Gates is trying to protect his empire and if that IP rights thingy would turn into law as currently proposed then for once he can control the market in a legal way.

To give your own example: a better mousetrap. You can build, design, whatever better mousetraps until you're blue in the face. You still will be violating Bill Gates 'the concept of a trap' patent so for the next twenty years or so we all won't be using your better mousetrap but instead we'll will be milked dry by being forced to use Bill Gates version of a mousetrap. Unless of course you would be willing to release your better mouse trap under the terms Bill Gates dictates (which he can because he has the exclusive 'the concept of a trap' rights where you have zill rights) which more then likely will favour the wishes of Microsoft's stockholders then what's good for the public.

In short. This whole IP rights thingy is not about a free market, not about protecting developers rights, improving the economy or whatever other buzz word or political nice sounding word you can think of. No, this is only about keeping the control of a market in the hands of those with the deepest pockets and nothing else.

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

Full Talkback thread