A friend of mine predicted this a decade ago. He told me the tech industry
was walking all over each other's patents and that as they consolidated
there would be a patent war exactly like the one that resulted in RCA's
monopoly of the late 1920s-early '50s.
The problem is that better ideas (or better music) can't obtain the
necessary investment to become fully realized and visible without patent and
copyright protection. I think all intellectual property arguments come down
to "I deserve protection for my intellectual property but you don't deserve
protection for yours because needing to pay you will make my business less
profitable." This is why I call arguments against copyright "selective
socialism." And people's rationalizations for not paying are endless. As for
Google, I can't imagine any cell phone that doesn't walk all over both
Motorola and Nokia patents because Motorola invented the portable phone and
Nokia invented the cell. This isn't rocket science and shouldn't be much of
a surprise.
Make no mistake about the fact that Google, Apple and Microsoft's "business
model" all along has been a David Sarnoff style patent monopoly. I can
assure you that ownership of "content" is also very much in their gun-sights
as the mass-looting they've enabled devalues the existing media publishing
industries to the point that they can be acquired for little or nothing.
The only thing protecting individuals from these monopolies will be the
copyright and patent laws. They really ought to be strengthened but the
best government money can buy has been lobbied for weakening them by Silicon
Valley investment bankers for over a decade using endless tales of "Evil
Disney" and "copyright monopolies."
Hopefully people will begin to wake up to the fact that these folks are
really not our friends.
Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
615.562.4346 http://www.bobolhsson.com http://audiomastery.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 5:23 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Morning reading: One take on patents, somewhat related
to discussions we've had on copyrights, plus a take on copyrights
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/08/google-motorola-and-a
-patent-war.html
others would argue that the patent system is fine, it ain't broke, that the
whole point is for closely-related ideas to fight it out in courts, with the
patents being the guide for those deciding the cases.
More directly related to what we discuss on this list:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/arts/music/springsteen-and-others-soon-eli
gible-to-recover-song-rights.html
-- Tom Fine
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