Comment And in related news... (Score 1) 502
How is an AK-47 like a QWERTY keyboard?
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/?last_story=/tech/h tww/2007/06/01/ak_47/
Seriously, the linked article is dated 1 June 2007. The World Bank policy paper it covers is from April 2007 (http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDS ContentServer/IW3P/IB/2007/04/13/000016406_2007041 3145045/Rendered/PDF/wps4202.pdf).
Quote from the paper (also quoted in the salon article):
The AK-47's ubiquity [in conflicts in third world countries] could alternatively be explained as a result of a path dependent process. Economic historians recognize that an inferior product may persist when a small but early advantage becomes large over time and builds up a legacy that makes switching costly (David 1975). In the case of the AK-47 that early advantage may be that as a Soviet invention it was not subject to patent and so could be freely copied.
Either this patent story is a joke, or Sergei Ivanov is spending too much time on teh internets...
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/?last_story=/tech/
Seriously, the linked article is dated 1 June 2007. The World Bank policy paper it covers is from April 2007 (http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WD
Quote from the paper (also quoted in the salon article):
The AK-47's ubiquity [in conflicts in third world countries] could alternatively be explained as a result of a path dependent process. Economic historians recognize that an inferior product may persist when a small but early advantage becomes large over time and builds up a legacy that makes switching costly (David 1975). In the case of the AK-47 that early advantage may be that as a Soviet invention it was not subject to patent and so could be freely copied.
Either this patent story is a joke, or Sergei Ivanov is spending too much time on teh internets...