NationStates Jolt Archive

(Sigh) ... no one's locked this thread already? :rolleyes:

(Sigh) ... no one's locked this thread already? :rolleyes:
OOC: I think they're trying to set a record for the longest official topic thread.

OOC: I think they're trying to set a record for the longest official topic thread.

OOC: What is the current record? One of the abortion debates?

OOC: What is the current record? One of the abortion debates?
OOC: Honestly, I don't know, I was just making a joke.

(Sigh) ... no one's locked this thread already? :rolleyes:

Why do threads get locked?

OOC: What is the current record? One of the abortion debates?
Repeal "Legalize Prostitution" was ~900 posts.

Why do threads get locked?

Is there some sort of faq I should go looking in for a question like that?

Typically, one would look in the Moderation forum. There's a big sticky called The One-Stop Rules Shop.

Typically, in here, they get locked when they're spam, flaming, trolling, horribly off topic, or serve no further purpose. This one is treading the lines for the last two.

It's a shame this was passed.

frirstly, the standard economic analysis of patents has them reducing the cost of production and thus providing A. the benefit of increased consumer and producer surplus while at the same time causing B. a deadweight loss due the monopoly power involved which results in a higher price and reduced quantity produced. I would argue that in any example, after the first couple of years, B greatly outweighs A.

IP also encourages rent-seeking behavior. The classic example is Disney's petitioning Congress to get copyright laws extended to prevent Mickey Mouse from going public domain. Extending an EXISTING copyright or patent produces ZERO benefit and causes a HUGE deadweight loss to be incurred.

Then there's the tragedy of the anticommons. It is caused by the overabundance of exclusive property rights and results in the wasting of a resource. It is nearly impossible for a software firm to produce a piece of software these days without hiring an army of lawyers to ensure that they are not accidentally infringing on someone else's IP. We are seeing the rise of a number of "firms" that consist of nothing but a small group of lawyers who have purchased questionable IP rights for no reason other than to extort money from legitimate, productive companies. Far from being necessary to encourage innovation, IP is discouraging it.

It's a shame this was passed.

frirstly, the standard economic analysis of patents has them reducing the cost of production and thus providing A. the benefit of increased consumer and producer surplus while at the same time causing B. a deadweight loss due the monopoly power involved which results in a higher price and reduced quantity produced. I would argue that in any example, after the first couple of years, B greatly outweighs A.

IP also encourages rent-seeking behavior. The classic example is Disney's petitioning Congress to get copyright laws extended to prevent Mickey Mouse from going public domain. Extending an EXISTING copyright or patent produces ZERO benefit and causes a HUGE deadweight loss to be incurred.

Then there's the tragedy of the anticommons. It is caused by the overabundance of exclusive property rights and results in the wasting of a resource. It is nearly impossible for a software firm to produce a piece of software these days without hiring an army of lawyers to ensure that they are not accidentally infringing on someone else's IP. We are seeing the rise of a number of "firms" that consist of nothing but a small group of lawyers who have purchased questionable IP rights for no reason other than to extort money from legitimate, productive companies. Far from being necessary to encourage innovation, IP is discouraging it.

Wanna help draft the repeal? We could use language like that :) I'm happy to repeal this only to have it replaced by more moderate copyright legislation.

Wanna help draft the repeal? We could use language like that :) I'm happy to repeal this only to have it replaced by more moderate copyright legislation.

If the aim of the repeal is to scale down the legislation to something more moderate then the only suggestion i can make is that the monopoly privilege is granted for a term of no more than 14 years for all new works. The recently passed Copyright Law does seem to have quite liberal fair use provisions, so I'm dubious as to whether there's much else we can change.

I don't believe that I.P laws serve any progressive purpose. I would be for the abolishment of all Copyright and Patenting laws.

If the aim of the repeal is to scale down the legislation to something more moderate then the only suggestion i can make is that the monopoly privilege is granted for a term of no more than 14 years for all new works. The recently passed Copyright Law does seem to have quite liberal fair use provisions, so I'm dubious as to whether there's much else we can change.

I don't believe that I.P laws serve any progressive purpose. I would be for the abolishment of all Copyright and Patenting laws.

Our nation didn't have any such laws before joining the UN. We didn't really enter the international debate until after the patent law had been passed, so we have not thoroughly examined that legislation, (our country is still in the process of fully implementing it).

I ideally, we would like to be able to continue to ignore these strange IP laws of other nations for our own domestic personal use. We don't feel other nations have a right to impose their government imposed monopolies on the trade within our nation. How copyright relates to international trade is a more complcated matter.

However this body passed draconian copyright legislation, so we fear we may be forced to compromise. Copyright does have some advantages, we are willing to try it, but not for the ridiculous duration proposed in the current legislation. We hope it will be repealed before it get's extended further, as the megacorps have tended to do where ever copyright exists.

*snip*

We hope it will be repealed before it get's extended further, as the megacorps have tended to do where ever copyright exists.

Yes, yes, bloody evil corporations... :rolleyes:

Yes, yes, bloody evil corporations... :rolleyes: Corporations are the cause and solutions of many of the worlds problems. If you hand corporations tools which will help them keep a safe work place, minimize their environmental impact, keep their workers healthy, etc. then they can be a real boon to the economy, without meanwhile ruining some other part of society. The Free Land of Discoraversalism is home to many prosperous corporations, we're a capitalist state :)

If you give coprorations tools they will use to stamp out competition and stifle creativity, they'll do that too. Artificial monopolies of ever increasing duration are exactly that.