[OT] "The Condescending UI" (was: Do we need Win95/98/Me support?)

[Jonathan M Davis]

On Monday, January 23, 2012 17:37:59 Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> IP is evil. That's what I love about China: Not much respect for IP. Thanks
> to China's disregard for such things, I have an adaptor that lets me use the
> fantastic DualShock2 on Xbox1, GC or PC. That would *never* happen in the
> US or any heavily-US-influenced country. The corporations and lawyers just
> wouldn't allow it.

IP is not entirely evil. For instance, I think that it's perfectly legitimate 
for an author to want to be paid for the book that they wrote. The same goes 
for a song or a movie. And if I write code, and I don't release it under an 
open source license, then no one has any business using it without my 
permission as long as the copyright holds. The problem is that companies take 
it way too far. Too much is protected - the prime example of this being 
software patents (it's ludicrous to patent an idea IMHO) - and companies go 
too far in protecting it (e.g. MPAA or RIAA).

The end result is that instead of legitimately protecting innovation and 
inventions, IP is now frequently used to stifle innovation and prevent 
competition.

The basic concept isn't necessarily bad, but how it's been applied has gone 
way too far.

- Jonathan M Davis