Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
[snip]
I was just pondering this recently ... not so much the article itself,
but more the post subject.
Microsoft is often ridiculed for claiming "innovation", when what they
actually mean is "marketing". The question is not whether Microsoft
deserve credit for funding, implementing and marketing others ideas, but
more about their attempts to claim originality, and their subsequent
attempts to not only dissociate that idea from its true inventor, but
also enforce their rights to that plagiarised work with grossly
ill-conceived American laws.
Article 1, Section 8 of The US constitution vows to "promote the
Progress of Science and useful Arts" with "exclusive rights" for the
inventors, but the problem is that the designation of "inventor" rests
upon arbitrary decisions made by the Patent Office, who's criteria
seems to be weighed heavily by commerce rather than scientific
discovery. This does not promote scientific progress, it merely promotes
greed. In fact I fail to see how any form of "exclusion" can be viewed
as "promoting progress" ... it's an oxymoron.
So when Microsoft and their ilk claim "innovation", I think they truly
believe what they say, since by the definition of all that is embodied
in the "American Dream", they *are* "innovating" ... i.e. they are
harvesting IP, then restricting access to that technology in order to
form and strengthen a monopoly, just as the American Constitution
encourages them to.
By the American definition, that is indeed equatable with "innovation",
but the problem is that the *definition* is wrong. Innovation is
conception and discovery, not marketing, but American politics deems all
things to be grounded in commerce, so such thinking is endemic and
institutional. They've substituted the concept of "inventor" with
*investor*; it's a travesty.
The divide that exists between Microsoft and the Free World is one of
semantics and values. Their dream is our nightmare.
--
K.
http://slated.org
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