Comment Re:Chrome (Score 1) 585
Just sayin
Ideas aren't supposed to be patentable, specific inventions are...
Patents are words on paper. They are nothing more and nothing less than ideas. Specific inventions are manifestations of ideas. It is the idea that is patented, not the thing.
This patent was filed in 1996. This means it will expire in 2016. At that time, it will go into the public domain and be available for all to use as they see fit, free of charge. This is, in my opinion, superior to copyright. Copyright lasts forever (practically, if not literally). If Allen had copyright, rather than patent, the protection would last much longer. (An American law expert can confirm whether patent expiration timing starts from time of filing or time of grant).
Gov't regulating lead-free drinking water is not an attack on liberty.
This is a common conclusion based on the misconception that regulation of pollution is intended to reduce pollution.
The original purpose of discharge limit regulations was to provide permission to pollute. This was a substitute for property rights which were making it impossible for big government to pollute (via municipal sewage) and big business to pollute. So government reduced our liberty by reducing our property rights in order to facilitate pollution and commerce. So yes, regulating lead-free drinking water is an attack on liberty AND a means of increasing the amount of lead that can be discharged (there has never, in the history of the earth, been an untreated source of water that was or is 100% lead free, you just need a good enough analysis method to find it). The loss of liberty in western society has been a death by a thousand cuts. The efficacy of which are improved by propagandists who tell us that regulation is for our good, not theirs.
THEGODDESSOFTHENETHASTWISTINGFINGERSANDHERVOICEISLIKEAJAVELININTHENIGHTDUDE