Which will be released mid to late 2012. So, about the same time or later.

Bert

An Apple boycott would be silly, as just about any other manufacturer (Dell etc.) have their stuff manufactured over there too.

Apple is the first tech industry to join the FLA which is currently visiting China. First impression: Conditions are better than the norm:
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/technology/Apple+iPad+factory+conditions+better+than+norm+agency/6162817/story.html

Bert

No, as it would require common sense, which isn't very common. There's a case where a person couldn't get his fish in a bag of water along because well, the amount of liquid (which could be an explosive, right?) was too much.

Bert

Every patent application is published after 18 months. Society may well get information that way before a product is even sold.
Every patent application contains a detailed description of how to work the invention and to that end may well contain info you can't learn even if you have the product in hand. (If a patent application doesn't show how to work the invention it is unlikely to be granted. Except software patents, unfortunately). Having a proper description saves quite a bit of time over figuring things out for yourself. Society is saved from the burden of having to re-invent stuff.
Other people can make another invention base on the earlier invention and apply for a patent too. Thus they get bargaining power over the original proprietor as that guy isn't to do what the other people came up with too.

I've a client who was confronted with a patent for technology my client would have liked to use. The client then started thinking and came up with something better (and not covered by the patent). Patents can drive innovation.

So, while a patent can stop other people from doing things, it can NEVER stop people from building on that. Apart from that, a patent being a territorial right, there's usually plenty of countries where you can do your thing freely.

Bert

I have one of those and the programmer should be shot. Make that at least a dozen of times. After each scan I have to make half a dozen of mouse clicks to get ready for the next scan. Close the floating window. Then it asks me whether I want to throw away the last scan. Why would I want that? And why is it the default? Then you have to go to the dock, right-click (not an ordinary click), select the proper menu item to get the floating window again. AAARrrrrrggghhh.

What it does a nice job at is recognizing single sided and double sided, as well as orientation. OK, deduct two bullets.

Bert

That's because of the type of pictures you download?

Bert

It would be nice if people stopped conflating the two.
Copyright: World wide by default
Patents: Only valid where it is applied for (IF granted) . In view of the cost, most patents are only applied for in 1 country/jurisdiction.

Copyright: No cost to the copyright holder
Patents: Applicant must draft costly patent application

Copyright: Never ends in your lifetime or that of your children
Patents: End when the proprietor stops paying the renewal fee and in any case within 20 years.

Copyright: Even for DRM where the work will never enter the public domain
Patents: The applications are publicly available (for the treasure trove on just about any topic, see for exampole http://espacenet.com/ for everyone world wide (including developing countries).

Copyright: Has to be original (low bar)
Patents: Must not only be New, but also Inventive (very high bar; sure, some bad stuff slips through but there are review process/opposition procedures to weed them out if someone is bothered by one). The invention must be described in a way in which an ordinary person skilled in the art can work it (or the patent is null and void).

So, while the patent law is crude, it is working. You don't think that applicants would provide the long explanatory texts that patent applications are if they had no chance of getting protection for their invention, do you?
Copyright law, I agree with you: No balance between society and copyright holder. And the balance is shifting in the wrong direction too. If you conflate the two, you make it harder to get something done about copyright law.

Bert

I think it is perfectly true for the variable being equal to 0

Bert

If a person of religion x tries to convert a person of religion y, he also tries to stop another believing in their religion. I somehow doubt that it results in the same reaction.

Bert

Two points:
Why so upset about slave labor in Asia? It is not as if (mainly black) people aren't forced to work at slave wages in the US.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TpFlOioXys
(mainly in the second half of the clip)

If the price of iPhones wasn't reduced by manufacturing at reduced cost, less money would come to the US from sales abroad. Basically it is money that Americans didn't have to work for.

Bert