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It's a sad day when big business is more corrupt than the government :(

Your wikipedia link reads like a description of the current situation.

"Hardly" is going too far. Why not just come out and say it - not a single word of truth is printed unless it benefits someone with power.

One could invest in Tech stocks then use the profits to selectively bribe members of the courts system to act in a manner which from the outside looks consistent with justice-for-all.

As far as I know, it's very very rare that such a widget is of such clever design that you freeload on someone's hard work. What I think is the case (on basis of a thoroughly non-scientific survey, sample-size 6, personal observation) is that any ingenuity in the design is spent in making sure the widget in question can't be second-sourced without infringing on some sort of patent. E.g. by adding a special notch, a special hole, or simply making the dimensions so that the widget is unlike any other on the planet (and any other widgets won't fit) and that regardless of extent of use, environmental conditions, time zone.., the widget dependably develops a fatal fault one nano-second after the warranty elapses.

Because it's not 'authorized' (lol) by those that believe they have an everlasting source of cash selling a cheap part for multiples/orders of magnitude of the value it could attain in a market with competition?

This only works if the manufacturers of the originals appear to condemn the practice.

That said, there could be safety standards for home-printed parts along the lines of "this geometry printed using XYZ materials on a printer meeting these minimum specifications is equivalent to the original part",

How does this allow *someone* to maintain a monopolistic price advantage? Dude, ur anti-american.

Warning of an imminent ecosystem change, Joshua Greenbaum advises manufacturers to take a page from the music industry's playbook and attempt to prevent this by anti-competitive means intended to halt societal progress for their own gain.

Yes.

Whenever something bad happens, there's usually a lawyer close by. You do the math.

That would remove the intentional irony. Doh.

Where... was the line between opinion and incitement, again?

Wherever the guy weighing the contributions from those with vested interests decides it is?

So... which is this? stupidity or corruption?

Damage control FTW