In what reality are private monopolies "good for the economy"?

The notion that the patent system is decent and necessary but somewhat out of control is totally bogus. It's working precisely as intended. Patent law was built by patent trolls, run by patent trolls, and exists thanks to patent trolls. Aka patent attorneys and speculators and companies with no other way to make a profit.

Mafia is right. Comparisons to slavery are right. "A limited slavery system is good for the economy". Hogwash. Abolition is the only cure for this parasite.

How about Curve25519 and NaCl?

Hmm, that's an easy one. You bring troops from region A to fight in region B, those from B to C, and those from C to A. Has been done often, works nicely.

Your post is not accurate in any sense. The GPL exists to stop software written as an open collaboration being privatised and turned into close software. GPLv3 exists because people were cheating with GPLv2 software.

Site is down before first comment. Running on a DART-4460 maybe?

The original work can't be privatised but derived works can be, and the original can be lost or made inaccessible.

Public domain doesn't guarantee access. For that you need a remixing license like cc-by-sa or GPL.

"most big companies avoid GPLv3 like the plague"... [citation needed]. This simply isn't true. A few very specific large firms do, Apple being one.

This is for the core engine, GNU/Linux and other platforms. I've used OpenShot and loved it, have pledged $250.

It's great to see KickStarter used for open source like this.

In a free market price of any product will drop by 50% every two years until it hits cabbage prices. Markets where the price remains high are being artificially constrained. Telecoms is a perfect example. Telcos go on about how expensive airspace is, but in fact it's patent pools that exclude competitors, and allow operators to charge their extortionate rates. If fuel cells got 4x cheaper in 10 years, they are in fact overpriced by 8 times (should have fallen 2^5 = 32 times in ten years). I'd be willing to bet any amount of money that it's patents that are doing the constraining here.

Yup. Don't know why your comment modded down. Whenever you see a promising area of technology stagnate and stop moving for 20 years, then pick up magically, it's patents.

The law is what Congress makes, and if they decide math is patentable, then it is.

Actually all patents are medieval hocus pocus. In no world does a monopoly on the market for an idea create wider value to society. Patents are, and have always been, a ruse to transfer wealth from the mass market to a few individuals.

There's only one solution, and that will come eventually, and that is to end all patents, period.

So much wrongness.

Let's start with your conclusion, "Canonical doesn't follow the arbitrary pattern I believe I've identified therefore I think it will fail". This isn't science, it's looking for evidence to support your (quite poor) theories.

You started by saying, "businesses that succeed using FOSS". This today covers 95% of successful businesses.

You've ignored the many FOSS-based businesses (those that make and distribute it, not just use it) such as IBM, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub. None of these fit your "blessed three" yet they're the dominant model.

And you include "holding out a tin cup" as a successful business strategy. Name a single successful "business" that does this.

Let me explain how successful businesses *really* use FOSS. First, they find a market with incumbents paying too much for their software or spending too much making it. Then they build new FOSS stacks and products that attack these incumbents. They take their clients and charge them a fraction of the old prices. You can sell _anything_ like this, as long as the product has software as part of its critical supply chain.

They weren't selling the movies. They were putting them onto Bittorrent. This was more a political act than anything; certainly not a for-profit crime.

SVN repo for project is empty. Site has no contact address. Reported site for abuse.