Interesting Charity - Buying Intellectual Property

[softwareNerd]

People who are against the current system copyrights often claim that the need to pay means less people will get the advantages of the copyrighted idea. This is true in the narrow context where one assumes that the idea exists, but drops the context that it (and many of the ideas on which it is based) may not have existed, or may have been slower in development, if the people behind them weren't well paid.

So, it's interesting to read a story about someone who's thinking of being charitable by buying the copyrights to works and then allowing unpaid access to the material.

Added: And if you have some ideas about what copyrighted works would be the best candidates for such a $100 million charitable effort, the folks at the Wiki are soliciting suggestions. (see story via link above)

Edited October 24, 2006 by softwareNerd

[DavidV]

I have a similar idea: establish a non-profit that will either accept or require its paying members to contribute their patents. The members will be able to freely use the patents, and the dues will be used to protect the patents' validity.

Non-members will have an incentive to avoid patent wars because the non-profit will have a formidable patent portfolio to fight back with. Such an organization does not protect against patent trolls, but the trolls will not be able to corner small companies as they do now.