Oil companies have bought out patents to engines that run on alternative fuels. They know that if the word ever really gets out, then they are doomed.
I've been hearing this for years. Now that we have easy access to the patents out there, though, it seems that everyone should be able to find out more about these alternatives fuel engines. And since I remember hearing this back in the 1970's, a few of the patents must have run out by now. As for the ones that haven't...if they're such a danger to the oil companies, I'll bet a few chemical and/or mechanical engineers could get together, change the design just enough to be legal, and run the oil (and auto) industries into the ground. Good luck!
However, since this hasn't happened yet, I expect that this is just another anti-corporate urban legend -- one that attempts to explain in simple terms the complexities that rule our world. Although I think I'll go home and search that site a bit, just to be sure.
As for ethanol...I'd like to think that it would be a simple, renewable resource that would get us past corporate and political games. However, Archer Daniel Midland's involvement in ethanol production, and ethanol subsidies proposed by corn belt senators, make me realize that no answers are that simple.
I don't know that Senator Hatch was necessarily thinking of this, but... His example does bring up that old issue of what ownership is with respect to intellectual property, since the CD in question is owned by both of them.
So, does Hatch's wife have the right to a copy of a CD that she owns as part of community property with her husband the senator? If not, why not? I daresay that it doesn't infringe on the commercial market for the CD -- if she couldn't copy it, she probably would not buy another copy just to cover the (presumably rare) times they both want to listen to it in different places. She can listen to it at the same time as her husband in other circumstances, such as when the CD is playing in their house and both are present.
So, what does the ownership of a compact disc recording signify? How many copies can be made, if two people have joint ownership? I dunno, either.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been hearing this for years. Now that we have easy access to the patents out there, though, it seems that everyone should be able to find out more about these alternatives fuel engines. And since I remember hearing this back in the 1970's, a few of the patents must have run out by now. As for the ones that haven't...if they're such a danger to the oil companies, I'll bet a few chemical and/or mechanical engineers could get together, change the design just enough to be legal, and run the oil (and auto) industries into the ground. Good luck!
However, since this hasn't happened yet, I expect that this is just another anti-corporate urban legend -- one that attempts to explain in simple terms the complexities that rule our world. Although I think I'll go home and search that site a bit, just to be sure.
As for ethanol...I'd like to think that it would be a simple, renewable resource that would get us past corporate and political games. However, Archer Daniel Midland's involvement in ethanol production, and ethanol subsidies proposed by corn belt senators, make me realize that no answers are that simple.
TSG
So, does Hatch's wife have the right to a copy of a CD that she owns as part of community property with her husband the senator? If not, why not? I daresay that it doesn't infringe on the commercial market for the CD -- if she couldn't copy it, she probably would not buy another copy just to cover the (presumably rare) times they both want to listen to it in different places. She can listen to it at the same time as her husband in other circumstances, such as when the CD is playing in their house and both are present.
So, what does the ownership of a compact disc recording signify? How many copies can be made, if two people have joint ownership? I dunno, either.
TSG