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Re:IBM sues Airbnb for patent royalties by jjoonathan on Thursday March 12, 2020 @01:58PM (#22559701)
> in a country without property law big mean farming operations with security staff will just come and park themselves where you were farming.

That's exactly what is happening in a country that does have the corresponding IP law and the IP law is enabling the practice rather than fighting it. In other news: war is peace, ignorance is strength, and freedom is slavery. Carry on!

Re:IBM sues Airbnb for patent royalties by riazrizvi on Thursday March 12, 2020 @02:14PM (#22559869)
When property laws were introduced to the US, parties with an information advantage were able to exploit loopholes, trick ignorant people into signing agreements that they didn’t understand etc. Lots of people fell foul to the new system and I’m sure it was written initially to favor certain parties. But it’s better than no ownership framework. The thing to do now is understand it.
Re:IBM sues Airbnb for patent royalties by jjoonathan on Thursday March 12, 2020 @03:04PM (#22560503)
> But it’s better than no ownership framework.

That hardly follows. "IP" has very different properties than land, and "no ownership framework" is hardly the only alternative under consideration.

Even to the extent that land ownership and idea ownership can be analogized, using the former to justify the later is a poor argument on account of the enormous known systematic problems with the former. In particular, there's a reason why economists borrowed the term "rent" to mean "benefit received for non-produced input."

> The thing to do now is understand it.

That doesn't justify anything either. Did organized crime just take over your neighborhood? Understanding their priorities will help you deal with the problem, but it doesn't make them good and it doesn't make them worth protecting.

Re:IBM sues Airbnb for patent royalties by freejazz on Thursday March 12, 2020 @04:02PM (#22561137)
Right - because on places like here people are convinced that strong inventor's patent rights are BAD overall. That's how big corporations take up all the IP while simultaneously using it to strangle smaller players. With stronger IP regime, an inventor could get an injunction over an infringer - now they can't. Read about efficient infringement.