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Critic of Software Patents Wins Nobel Prize in Economics
doom writes "You've probably already heard that the Nobel Prize for Economics was given to three gents who were working on advances in mechanism design theory. What you may not have heard is what one of those recipients was using that theory to study: 'One recent subject of Professor Maskin's wide-ranging research has been on the value of software patents. He determined that software was a market where innovations tended to be sequential, in that they were built closely on the work of predecessors, and innovators could take many different paths to the same goal. In such markets, he said, patents might serve as a wall that inhibited innovation rather than stimulating progress.' Here's one of Maskin's papers on the subject: Sequential Innovation, Patents, limitation (pdf).
Who are the omnipotent scholars who can blithely assign decent comments like z80kid's a troll modifier? Who anointed these people?
Now, my original comment may have been off topic, but my point was that the politicization of the Peace Prize is so blatant that it can now make thoughtful people wonder about the value of the science prizes. I truly don't understand game theory, or some of the other things that win the Nobel. I might like to become one of the people who at least understand a little, especially if it affects decisions on things like software patents. But if fairly learned people like myself lose interest in the set of prizes because of the simple-mindedness of the Peace prize, then the Nobel legacy is certainly headed downhill.