UK Report Proposes Changes To IP Laws 146
NKJV writes "A new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research, a UK think tank, has some concrete suggestions on how to reform the UK's dated intellectual property laws. The starting point for its deliberations is the notion that knowledge is both a commodity and a public good, and it recommends that the UK move from a model where knowledge is 'an asset first and a public resource second' to one where knowledge is primarily a public resource and secondarily an asset. Is that an anti-business attitude? The report's authors don't think so."
Re:Anti-human attitude. (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, it is. But there's an exception that permits it -- for certain copies, to certain degrees, anyway.
Copyright law in the U.S. is actually a pretty reasonable tradeoff, at least before the Sony Bono Never Let Micky Free infinite extensions regime began, and until the DMCA criminalized things like loaning if the copyright holder didn't want you to.
No, I'd say that the last time it was good was in the 19th century, and it stopped even being decent with the 1976 Copyright Act. But it's always been worth improving.
though I also think software patents should not be allowed on the basis that they are patents on math.
I disagree. I think that the reason to disallow software patents and business method patents is because we don't need to incentivize inventors in those fields; natural incentives are already sufficient, and patents seem to be disincentivizing invention in those fields, in fact. Would Amazon have not developed one click shopping if it couldn't get a patent on it? Of course not; it would have developed it anyway. So no patent was needed. Maybe someday those fields will change, and patents will be needed, but not anytime soon.