23 April 2013 - regulatory capture 4

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Intellectual property is a contagious mental illness. The pattern is not copyright, which in every advanced economy favors content businesses over consumers because voting with money trumps voting with votes, but patents. In the U.S., patents worked adequately until Congress centralized patent appeals in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. As a small target audience, the judges were soon indoctrinated with patent-owner views and before long they were overturning centuries of precedent with dubious innovations like algorithm patents. So please keep your meme filter turned on high.

clue:

Seriously, life plus seventy years? Most personal writing has zero commercial value, yet unless you take special action it is protected in much of the world until the time of your great-great-grandchildren.

Economic studies of patents show mixed value, with some industries benefiting and others (like software) suffering.

give me a clue so sweet and true

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