Does IBM Freeing Patents Really Need An Explanation?
from the scary dept
Want to know just how far the debate over intellectual property has been skewed these days? A few months after IBM decided to free up approximately 500 patents they weren't really using in hopes of stimulating growth in other areas, the NY Times felt it was necessary to write a whole article explaining how it was actually possible to profit from freely sharing information. The disturbing part is that the article frames this in a way suggesting that most business people these days probably wouldn't think it was possible to profit by releasing info so that others could improve on it and offer more that will come back to help IBM. This is what we get when we allow our education system to be outsourced to the entertainment industry, who go around telling kids that anything free is obviously bad and "stolen."
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
