Comment Individual patents, no. Collective patents, yes (Score 2) 234
Does an individual deserve to own a patent on checksumming? Surely not. But is there an argument to be made for collective ownership of the patent? I believe there is.
You see, when a patent is granted to an individual, the benefits aren't accrued solely by the individual. The entire society benefits, because that country now possesses a citizen who owns the patent and can wield it against other countries' citizens. The GNP is in whole raised because of efforts like these.
You can imagine how much richer the US economy would have been if we'd managed to patent the transistor before Japan got its own electronics markets running. You can imagine how much safer the world would be from nuclear warfare if the US had successfully patented atomic weapons before the Russians got their own projects going. Though the lifespan of a patent is only about 18 years, that would have been enough time to get some diplomatic solutions in place and prevent the escalated arms races of the Cold War.
What does this have to do with checksumming? Not much, I'm afraid. That's a stupid patent and we all know it. But let's not cut off our nose to spite our face when so much good can be done by a proper patent system.
You see, when a patent is granted to an individual, the benefits aren't accrued solely by the individual. The entire society benefits, because that country now possesses a citizen who owns the patent and can wield it against other countries' citizens. The GNP is in whole raised because of efforts like these.
You can imagine how much richer the US economy would have been if we'd managed to patent the transistor before Japan got its own electronics markets running. You can imagine how much safer the world would be from nuclear warfare if the US had successfully patented atomic weapons before the Russians got their own projects going. Though the lifespan of a patent is only about 18 years, that would have been enough time to get some diplomatic solutions in place and prevent the escalated arms races of the Cold War.
What does this have to do with checksumming? Not much, I'm afraid. That's a stupid patent and we all know it. But let's not cut off our nose to spite our face when so much good can be done by a proper patent system.
