I think that insulating the shareholders from anything but the bottom line has a lot to do with things.
Even if they did care how a company got there, they are still blind unless they make a major effort to investigate, and considering how the management usually likes to shut them out, it's often more convenient to just sit back and collect dividend checks.
Except that the taxpayers rarely get any say in who they "hire" when the corporate jungle owns all the media outlets and can pretty much dictate who the voters even know are on the ballot.
The fact that people are able to flip them in the first place means that there's a shortage. People are willing to pay more than the sale price or they wouldn't be doing business with the scalpers to begin with.
I think it would be fairer for apple to get a level price hike skimmed from every customer equally than for the lucky few early birds to get theirs at a bargain.
I would however propose that prohibition is what gave the mob its lucrative growth to begin with that made it a big enough juggernaut to require the FBI to stamp out in the first place.
In theory you could simply refuse to license to them, since infringement would be sorta implied by the act of a derivation which makes the original invention a part of itself.
In practice they'd probably infringe anyway knowing they'd outlast you in court.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps, but the reality is that often the people that are really making the decisions are self serving bastards.
Consider a corrupt government that diverts relief funds away from its population and towards its own pocket books.
I don't donate to relief efforts for this very reason.
I know it's never going into a starving person's mouth as food, but instead into a terrorist's armory as weapons and ammo.
Simple case of the Prisoner's Dilemma.
If you can't trust the other side to cooperate, it's foolish to put your own ass on the line.
And it's always profitable to sucker punch the other side once they let their guard down.
That's because it's not really about patents.
It's just run of the mill government corruption at work.
Kobayashi maru anyone?
I think that insulating the shareholders from anything but the bottom line has a lot to do with things.
Even if they did care how a company got there, they are still blind unless they make a major effort to investigate, and considering how the management usually likes to shut them out, it's often more convenient to just sit back and collect dividend checks.
Except that the taxpayers rarely get any say in who they "hire" when the corporate jungle owns all the media outlets and can pretty much dictate who the voters even know are on the ballot.
It's called being a politician.
The DRM stuff that we love to hate so much is actually a feature from the POV of the content producers.
Of course it is. And I agree too.
Moving resources off shore is fine.
Lying to the IRS about it, however, is not.
It's like dealing with a famine by diverting grain to the bakery and away from the farm.
You mean that guy who wound up almost a full billion in debt?
Real estate isn't child's play.
You still have to work, just with your brains instead of your muscles.
Moving wealth off shore...presumably to hide the profits.
Isn't that tax evasion?
If that's the case, then we don't need politicians to wrangle over tax codes.
We need the IRS to give them a bloody audit, nail them for dodging taxes, and throw the bastards in jail where they belong.
The fact that people are able to flip them in the first place means that there's a shortage. People are willing to pay more than the sale price or they wouldn't be doing business with the scalpers to begin with.
I think it would be fairer for apple to get a level price hike skimmed from every customer equally than for the lucky few early birds to get theirs at a bargain.
Correct if the issue at hand is hair splitting over what's really the issue.
Intellectual property being used as a weapon.
Corporations still abuse them up the wazoo to stamp out competition from small fry that are too broke to defend themselves against a lawsuit.
It's just another weapon in SLAPP.
Then they should raise the price of the iPhone so that they get the markup.
And also distribute the price hike fairly among everyone who wants it, not just the few lucky scalpers who get in early.
This is a simple case of supply and demand.
We already have terrorist porn.
Didn't we have a case recently about someone who pissed off the wrong person and got kiddie porn hacked onto his computer?
It hurts all right.
It's a natural unpatentable product that competes with pharmaceuticals.
It hurts the pockets of their big wigs.
While the 21st amendment didn't kill the mob I'll bet more money on the theory that the 18th gave it a good start.
I would however propose that prohibition is what gave the mob its lucrative growth to begin with that made it a big enough juggernaut to require the FBI to stamp out in the first place.
All it takes is one greedy bastard to ruin a utopia.
Utopias require trust. Trust that is very profitable to break in such a situation.
That's actually a good example of prior art for a lot of the genetics patents out there.
If you're big enough to grind them to smithereens in court, you always have a case.
"We will drag you to pieces" is the same as "we got you cold" when you're too broke to defend yourself anyway.
In theory you could simply refuse to license to them, since infringement would be sorta implied by the act of a derivation which makes the original invention a part of itself.
In practice they'd probably infringe anyway knowing they'd outlast you in court.