🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <GUEST.91Mar12135621@geech.ai.mit.edu> guest@geech.ai.mit.edu (Guest Account) writes:
>We don't need to encourage inventors to publish descriptions of their
>inventions.  There are enough incentives already in place.  Money,
>fame, good will and more money are good incentives to make known the
>existence of an invention.  And that's all we need.  We don't have to
>have every invention spelled out for us.  It would be enough just to
>be inspired by an idea.  I don't feel like I need the government's
>"help" in this area.

Not everything is as easy to reverse engineer as software.  For instance,
no one has been able to duplicate Coca Cola.  Unfortunately for Coke
lovers, the incentives of the patent system weren't enough to get the
inventor of it to divulge his secret, and the Coca Cola Company has had a
de facto monopoly on the most popular soft drink for much longer than 17
years.  Lots of competitors have been inspired by the idea, but only one
even comes close in popularity.

Cola may be a frivolous example, but I'm sure there are more substantial
examples around.
--
Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
{uunet,harvard}!think!barmar