Text 4293, 45 rader
Skriven 2012-10-03 08:27:36 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
     Kommentar till en text av Bjorn Felten (2:203/2)
Ärende: Not only the Pirate Parties...
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Bjorn Felten wrote to All on Tuesday October 02 2012 at 19:32:

BF> Both theoretically and empirically, the political economy of
BF> government operated patent systems indicates that weak legislation
BF> will generally evolve into a strong protection and that the political
BF> demand for stronger patent protection comes from old and stagnant
BF> industries and firms, not from new and innovative ones.

"Old and stagnant" ;-) Like Apple, I suppose? Or Google. Or Samsung.

The statement seems pretty naive and much too global for me.

I recently read something I could endorse with greater enthusiasm - I think in
a forum letter for the heise.de website. Someone argued that in view of the
fast development and obselescence times of software, it was not right to give
software patents the same period of protection (20 years was mentioned) as, for
example medicines, that require long periods of research and testing before
they can even be sold.

Not a bad thought for my taste. And as for creative art, my opinion is still
that I can see the justice for copyrights during the author's lifetime and
maybe even over the first generation afterward (a generation being defined as
usual, around 25 years), but no longer - and certainly not the 70-90 years
after a creative author's/composer's _death_ that is presently the case in many
countries.

In other words, reduce the gap between patent and copyright periods. In the
case of many patents, particularly for medicines, the research and testing
periods are so lengthy that the effective period of protection from competition
is reduced to only a few years, whereas in the case of copyrights, the period
of protection from copying or free use is much too long and only benefits
people and companies that had no real part in creating a work. I would increase
the period of protection for patents in selected cases where a lengthy period
of testing and approval is required before a product can be sold, and reduce
those for copyrights to more nearly satisfy the needs of the author/componist
and their immediate family. I would also reduce the period of protection for
software patents, possibly down to 5-10 years to match their period of
usefulness and novelty.

A reform of the whole system is definitely necessary.

Cheers, Bob

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