[Ecommerce] Bill Gates CNEt interview -- IP critics are "new modern-day sort of communists"

[James Love]

In this interview, Bill Gates refers to critics of patent and copyright
laws as communists.  Jamie

http://news.com.com/Gates+taking+a+seat+in+your+den/2008-1041_3-5514121.html

Gates taking a seat in your den
January 5, 2005, By Michael Kanellos, Staff Writer, CNET News.com
  LAS VEGAS--Bill Gates is coming to your living room, whether you like
it or not.

......

CNET Question:   In recent years, there's been a lot of people clamoring
to reform and restrict intellectual-property rights. It started out with
just a few people, but now there are a bunch of advocates saying, "We've
got to look at patents, we've got to look at copyrights." What's driving
this, and do you think intellectual-property laws need to be reformed?

Bill Gates Answer:    No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's
more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are
fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new
modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for
musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They
don't think that those incentives should exist. . . . And this debate
will always be there. I'd be the first to say that the patent system can
always be tuned--including the U.S. patent system. There are some goals
to cap some reform elements. But the idea that the United States has led
in creating companies, creating jobs, because we've had the best
intellectual-property system--there's no doubt about that in my mind,
and when people say they want to be the most competitive economy,
they've got to have the incentive system. Intellectual property is the
incentive system for the products of the future.


--
James Love, Director, CPTech, http://www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC
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