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A Recipe for Intellectual Property Madness | 27 comments (27 topical) | Post A Comment
It's simple[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#18)
by Anonymous User on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 06:31:30 AM PDT

It's simple, really. There's lots of innovation in an area, and somebody eventually gets to the top of the heap that wants to stay there. So they lobby to have laws passed that create monopolies and raise barriers to entry. Various regulatory and IP laws, generally. (Some regulatory laws are needed in some areas for safety and the environment; but the regulatory bodies should be run by neutral third parties and advised by nonpartisan scientists, not run by the industry being "regulated"!)

Sooner or later one of these incumbents succeeds.

They get to the top, then impose a moratorium on progress so that they are frozen there and everyone else is stuck below them.

It really is that simple.

Deregulation time!

http://www.againstmonopoly.org/
http://www.questioncopyright.org/

[ Parent | Reply to This ]



Why no IP in restaurant biz? $$$$....[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#20)
by Anonymous User on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 12:08:06 PM PDT

Restaurants, even really successful ones, don't really make that much money. The reason that IP shenanigans are so rampant in tech is there's lots of money lying around to feed the sharks, er, lawyers. I very much doubt we'll see much of this except at the 3-star restaurants, but even there, there is an impediment: if you want repeat business, you *have* to constantly come up with new stuff, or people will stop coming. Its the definition of the business.

Presentation would seem to be copyrightable. Just because I can draw a good rendition of Mickey Mouse doesn't give me the right to sell them. Printed recipes obviously are as well. Doggie bags are legitimate "time-shifting" although I can imagine that for IP purposes, someone might try to prohibit them. I'm not even sure I have a problem with a "license to eat", although that could backfire: A license in my book implies warranties that would allow me to request a refund upon return of a, er, slightly processed dish...

It seems to me though that what we're talking about here is actually *plagiarism*, which is not only illegal, but its got a high immorality factor too: if someone is exposed as doing it, it can really pretty much destroy their reputation in an industry where rep is everything. Its not like the Chinese are going to start cranking out Souffle al Simone at a fraction of the price of the original and dump it on the black market. It will however, behoove chefs to establish origination of unique creations, which will both enhance their reputation as well as discourage "pirates"...

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


Hm.[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#26)
by Anonymous User on Wed Oct 25, 2006 at 12:35:54 PM PDT

Yes. This is another case where all that's really needed is a civil remedy for plagiarism.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


A Recipe for Intellectual Property Madness | 27 comments (27 topical) | Post A Comment
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