this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
108 points (76.5% liked)

Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

53435 readers
1126 users here now

⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.

Rules • Full Version

1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy

2. Don't request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote

3. Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs

4. Don't submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others



Loot, Pillage, & Plunder


💰 Please help cover server costs.

Ko-FiLiberapay


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Hey mateys!

I made a post at /c/libertarianism about the abolition of IP. Maybe some of you will find it interesting.

Please answer in the other community so that all the knowledge is in one place and easier to discover.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Alteon@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Intellectual property protects smaller innovators from larger companies. Imagine if you developed a novel process for solving a problem much cheaper than current methods. Now imagine if you started making some serious money doing this, and it starts to make some noise. What's to stop Amazon from just copying your process, and making it better/cheaper? They have the money to completely down you out.

Without Intellectual Property upkeep rights, any megacorp will just copy your idea and sell it for less at a broader scale, and cut you out of the market.

[–] Machinist3359@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Even with IP, there is very little stopping the big actors from developing something similar but debatable distinct, at a larger scale. By the time the lawsuit clears, they've wrecked your profitablity.

In fact, more often you see big companies act as patent trolls, using IP as a bludgeon to threaten smaller players who don't have an army of lawyers. See, DMCA takedowns to suppress speech, patent trolls, and esp trademark nonsense.

Trade secrets fit your example best, but more often than not that's something that relies on worker restrictions rather than traditional "IP"

[–] FriendOfFalcons@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Problem solving is basically patent. After all what is stopping a megacorp from using the same solution but in such a way that doesn't copy the exact work? Software for example, with current IP law, clean room reverse engineering is completely legal.

Think of how Tribute of Panem and Divergent almost have the exact same story beats but are still separate IP. IP protects singular works, like authors and their books, artists and their work.