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Trolls vs. Pirates

Why is it that when some poor college kid copies a copyrighted recording, he is called a Pirate by the RIAA, prosecuted under Federal law, and castigated in the press, while an inventor, who has invested at least as much effort in his invention as the shark-like music publishers (the actual creators of the music, whether the songwriters or the artists are not usually the beneficiaries of the action--the publishers are notorious for their "creative accounting" which eats up all the revenues) and chooses not to exploit it immediately for whatever reason, is denigrated as a "Troll?"

The basic reason for the original creation of patents was to encourage inventors to disclose their creations to the public, and not keep them as secrets. This was the practice before patents were developed. In exchange for disclosing his invention, and for teaching the public how to build it, the inventor is given an exclusive license to prevent others from practicing it for a specified period of years.

Currently, in the US, this is a total of twenty years after submission, with a further requirement that the term must be renewed periodically by paying rather steep and escalating fees. Failure to pay these on time results in the patent expiring early.

Apparently this is not enough for yurl2007; perhaps he wants to revert to those medieval times when artisans kept trade secrets closely, with the result that much time was spent needlessly finding solutions to problems already addressed by others inventions. Our patent system has been instrumental in the scientific and engineering development of our country. It must be preserved.

An inventor has as much right to use or not to use his intellectual property as anyone else has to use or not use for any legal purpose his personal property.

If yurl2007 has some money in the bank that he placed there and hasn't used for some time, should I be allowed to claim it if I say I have a pressing need for it?

If he has a piece of land which he bought in the expectation that he would be able to sell it in the future for a tidy profit, should I be allowed to squat on it and keep the property?

And note that the infringers are not usually small entities or individuals. In most cases it would not be worthwhile to sue them (unless one wanted to intimidate other weaker people as in the case of the aforementioned RIAA) because for all intents and purposes, most of them would be "judgment proof"--they wouldn't have enough assets.

No, they tend to very large or giant corporations who have staffs of lawyers who know the law and its consequences. Moreover, they have the resources to perform patent searches and other due diligence to be certain that they are not infringing. Therefore, I would conclude that they are either incompetent (unlikely) or deliberately infringing, the latter with the expectation that they will have deeper pockets and will be able to wear down the patentee. If this latter is the case, I have absolutely no sympathy for them. Perhaps if the news media applied the same epithet, Pirate, to the infringers, the public might have a more balanced view of the situation.

Posted by: Aquila_z   Posted on: 05/28/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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