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Economic Gridlock – the Invisible Cost of IP Law
smellsofbikes writes "This week's New Yorker magazine has a financial article, 'The Permission Problem,' discussing the hidden cost of patent, trademark and copyright laws. It's a subject anyone here already knows well, but he brings up two interesting points: 1) He uses the term 'tragedy of the anticommons.' Instead of depletion of a shared resource, this describes under-use of hoarded resources: areas that can't be explored because they're encumbered by patent/copyright issues. As he points out, the result of this is an invisible loss: drugs not made, software not written. The loss is impossible to quantify and difficult to see. I like the term 'tragedy of the anticommons' because it encapsulates a long-winded explanation into a pithy, memorable phrase that will stick with people unfamiliar with the topic. 2) He also cites a study by Ben Depoorter and Sven Vanneste that discusses why anticommons effects are seen, beyond mere competition. Individual right holders value their contribution to the overall project as a significant fraction of the project value, so if there are more than three or four right holders, their perceived value can far exceed the total value of the project, making it uneconomical."
Actually, the person you are replying to is 100% correct.
The only time the service doesn't work is in an unestablished industry with 0 competitors. In every other industry if you look long term giving things out for free makes exponentially more.
You are absolutely incorrect about medical patents. If it weren't for medical patents, my cousin would have been able to release a cure for a form of HIV she discovered about 5 years back. 5 years! But what happened? A similar modification by a big company has been patented, and they did it merely by patenting every possible variant of the string she used.
Patents are allowing the medical R&D companies to over-recoup the costs of research by a factor of 50+, easily, considering government sponsored research as well.
Lets look at other industries. If cars were given away through promotions (which happens all the time), do you think it might draw up more buzz for the companies?
Lets look at other industries. Take any product, and the more you sell it for, the less people come back for more business. The less you sell it for, the more competitive and more people come back for more business. All products break, or wear down, or need some sort of service. Not all products are worth buying twice in anyone's eyes.
This is also why well trained and good customer service policies make or break a company. Think of Dell's customer service and how people hates them for that.