Re: Not "Satanism;" realism.

["Eric M. Bennett" <ericb@pobox.com>]

Brett Glass wrote:

>At 04:39 PM 1/1/99 -0500, Mark Hinds wrote:
>
>>Intellectual property will end up in the hands of those with money.
>
>Not so. Intellectual property is one of the few areas in which
>the little guy is on a par with the big guy. In fact, the framers
>of the Constitution set things up that way. That's why, if I write
>a book, even the biggest and most powerful publishers will
>respect my copyright on that work.

Agreed.  I'm rather surprised that the sort of view Mark is expressing
could even show up on this list.  What's the company we're focused on
discussing?  Microsoft.  Who built it?  Bill Gates.  What did he start
with?  Approximately zero.

Gates used intellectual property to make his money in the first place.  And
if Microsoft behaved legally, there would be much less in the way of other
people who want to use software to do the same thing.

Following Mark's theory, it wouldn't it have been inevitable that
IBM--"those with the money" when Gates was starting out--would end up with
the intellectual property that is now so valuable to Gates?



--
Eric Bennett ( http://www.pobox.com/~ericb/ )
Cornell University, Field of Biochemistry, 377 Olin Chemistry Lab

We have increased our prices over the last 10 years [while]
other component prices have come down and continue to come down.
-Joachim Kempin, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Corp.