Nick Moffitt Interview

Swedish hacker-wannabee writes "Nick Moffitt is in an interesting interview at Gnuheter. Moffitt: 'I want to see a future where when I buy something, I own it. I don't want corporations and governments telling me how I may or may not use my own private property in my own home or among my friends. I want the ability to take apart my toaster or my alarm clock and see how they work, or combine them into something new. I don't think this future is possible without some serious effort on the part of hackers.'"

Comments

Timed Copyrights

[xSterbenx]

I really don't know much about copyright law. However, I do know that when pharmaceutical create a new drug, the get a limited patent on it for a certain number of years, and then other companies can make generic versions of the drug. This is done so that the pharmaceutical company can recuperate some of its research spending to research the drug (and all drugs that didn't work, but still were researched), as well as make money (of course!).

I don't see why a similar thing can't be done in general. A company makes something, and gets the full use and privacy of its item for a certain number of years. During this time it makes money and is happy. Then, after the time limit is up, everyone can then do what they want with it, take it apart, improve it, sell their idea, etc.

True, big businesses would never go for this, because it would make much less powerful and much less money. But it sounds like a good idea, right?