[open-government] Abraham Lincoln on benefits of patent law -- open records with limited rights, analogous with making government discoveries public via open records

Tue Nov 16 02:52:51 UTC 2010

I have quite a few references to the NGO and UN literature on evaluating
open access regimes.  They are below but the key, I think, is that public
access has not been examined directly for its impact on hard core measures
 of innovation, like patents.  Although you could cite Abraham Lincoln's
lecture he gave in 1859 about:

“Before then [U.S. Constitution patent clause],” Lincoln wrote, “any man
might

instantly use what another had invented; so that the

inventor had no special advantage from his own in-

vention.” Lincoln cuts to the essential: “The patent

system changed this; secured to the inventor, for a

limited time, the exclusive use of his invention; and

thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius,

in the discovery and production of new and useful

things.”

“The fuel of interest added to the fire of genius!”

Ever the realist, Lincoln knew what is in the human

being:  to be a genius is one thing, to be motivated is

quite another, and then to be supported in this moti-

vation by a wise regime is an unprecedented bless-

ing.  By contrast, a regime that does not secure natu-

ral rights depresses human energy.3  Natural rights

are not mere legal puffs of air; they formalize capaci-

ties for action that in some societies lie dormant and

in others are fueled into ignition."

Afterall, patent law forces the discovery to be public, just like open
records laws force findings by the government to be public.  You can
download Novak's book with the Lincoln quote and lots more for free from the
web. I've also attached a pdf of it but i'm not sure it will get through.
 I'll send the other references in a second email.

Dwight Hines

IndyMedia

Maine, USA

On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 7:06 PM, Romain Lacombe <romain.lacombe at gmail.com
>wrote:

> Ton,
> Good call on the Danish krone -- I should know better (you're very likely
> right).
>
> About available sources to back these claims up: I've stumbled upon a
> report from a OECD report that addresses just these questions, an reviews
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