Update
I’m home sick with a cold, so it might be a good opportunity to do some updates on my blog.
I was listening to a talk Dr John Patrick gave at a conference of physicians. He made lots of interesting points, but I’ll just take the time to share one. Some people say they are in favour of abortion because it is legal in this country. But John pointed out that killing people in gas chambers was legal in Hitler’s Germany. Even without this observation, it should be clear that the statement “I agree with it and I do it because it is legal” is full of holes.
I finished my book “Empire”. It reached a surprising conclusion; surprising because it is politically incorrect. The politically correct view is that all empires are always bad. On the other hand, Niall Ferguson argues at the conclusion of his book that the British Empire increased free trade during times of protectionism, provided a good foundation for law and education in their former colonies, a common language, and perhaps most interesting of all provided sufficient stability in the colonies that investors were able to flow capital into the colonies. Ferguson doesn’t gloss over the negative history of the British Empire, but does point out the relative success of the former British colonies as opposed to the colonies of the other European countries. In the end, Britain made the noble choice to oppose Hitler, a decision which cost her heavily in manpower and wealth, and assured the dissolution of the Empire.
My friend John has posted some comments on patents on his blog. I suggest you read them. John is a strong supporter of open source software. I on the other hand am more pragmatic in the open source vs. commercial software debate. My take on patents is that it is simply a way of ensuring that people who do creative work get compensated for it. If that creative work is a book, play or piece of art, there are copyrights. If that creative work is an invention, then there are patents. If we want to throw away all laws surrounding creative work (including copyrights), so be it. Or if we feel creative work is worth encouraging and compensating, then let’s continue to have copyrights, trademarks and patents.
I was listening to a talk Dr John Patrick gave at a conference of physicians. He made lots of interesting points, but I’ll just take the time to share one. Some people say they are in favour of abortion because it is legal in this country. But John pointed out that killing people in gas chambers was legal in Hitler’s Germany. Even without this observation, it should be clear that the statement “I agree with it and I do it because it is legal” is full of holes.
I finished my book “Empire”. It reached a surprising conclusion; surprising because it is politically incorrect. The politically correct view is that all empires are always bad. On the other hand, Niall Ferguson argues at the conclusion of his book that the British Empire increased free trade during times of protectionism, provided a good foundation for law and education in their former colonies, a common language, and perhaps most interesting of all provided sufficient stability in the colonies that investors were able to flow capital into the colonies. Ferguson doesn’t gloss over the negative history of the British Empire, but does point out the relative success of the former British colonies as opposed to the colonies of the other European countries. In the end, Britain made the noble choice to oppose Hitler, a decision which cost her heavily in manpower and wealth, and assured the dissolution of the Empire.
My friend John has posted some comments on patents on his blog. I suggest you read them. John is a strong supporter of open source software. I on the other hand am more pragmatic in the open source vs. commercial software debate. My take on patents is that it is simply a way of ensuring that people who do creative work get compensated for it. If that creative work is a book, play or piece of art, there are copyrights. If that creative work is an invention, then there are patents. If we want to throw away all laws surrounding creative work (including copyrights), so be it. Or if we feel creative work is worth encouraging and compensating, then let’s continue to have copyrights, trademarks and patents.
posted by Shawn Abigail at 9:00 a.m.
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