#Patents and #copyrights were never intended to “prevent people from stealing” or create perpetual ownership. It was intended to incentivize inventions that served the public good by providing inventors with a limited window of exclusivity as a reward for developing a concrete implementation of something innovative before it became freely available to the creative commons. It has become a toll-gate and a means of profiteering, but rewarding contributions to the commons was the real reason that #intellectual_property laws were created.
A short-term limited monopoly to encourage innovation is not the same thing as long-term stifling of competition. Innovation should be encouraged, but patents and copyrights today encourage #patent_trolling and #submarine_patents, create long-term barriers to entry, and impoverish the commons in ways that are rarely "short-term" or "limited."
1/ https://mastodon.social/@eff/113929932822398812
2/ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/todd-a-jacobs_so-theres-this-totally-scientific-method-activity-7291532656419221504-s67x
