[okfn-discuss] Making a technology public domain (copyleft for science and products)?

Fri Jan 9 13:57:46 UTC 2009

On Jan 9, 2009, at 3:38 AM, Rob Myers wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 3:59 AM, Mr. Puneet Kishor  
> <punkish at eidesis.org> wrote:
>> in my view, no one has to right to deny others the
>> choice of patenting.
>
> But then why should someone have the right to deny the others the
> choice (or accident) of using an invention by patenting it?
>
>

A fair question indeed. However, the patent system was never created  
with the aim of denying others the choice or accident of using an  
already patented invention. Its purpose was to ensure that inventors  
had recourse to benefits from their inventions for a limited time  
while allowing others to actually study and benefit from the  
invention. That is why patented inventions cannot remain a secret --  
they have to become public knowledge.

In any case, following the OP, I am definitely encouraging  
magnificentrevolutions to put their inventions in public domain  
thereby ensuring that they will never be patented OR patenting them  
and then ensuring that no one is ever denied access to them (same  
effect, but putting them in public domain is just easier and free).  
That will have exactly the effect you are proposing above -- no one  
will ever be stopped from using magrevs designs, and if someone ends  
up profiting from magrevs designs, heck, magrevs served its purpose --  
it did the good it wanted to do.

See, I don't see the world as a "us or them" system, a completely  
patent-free place. For my part, were I smart enough to invent  
something I would either put my inventions in public domain or patent  
them and make them available to everyone. I would also encourage  
anyone who would listen to me to do the same. But, if, for example,  
you Rob, wanted to patent something and extract your rent from it for  
a period of n years, well, I don't believe I have the right to stop  
you. Of course, because of my own actions, you would never be able to  
*exclusively* benefit from my designs because my designs would be  
available to everyone.

I hope that stance makes sense. I welcome discussion and feedback.

-- 
Puneet Kishor http://www.punkish.org/
Nelson Institute, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
Charter Member, Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org/
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