Yes, The US Industrial Revolution Was Built On Piracy And Fraud
from the a-little-history-lesson dept
Missed this when it first came out, but Bloomberg ran a fantastic report at the beginning of February, highlighting how piracy and fraud were key components to helping America catapult into the industrial revolution. In fact, there are reasonable arguments to be made that if the US was not a "pirate" nation, it would not have had the kind of success that it has had as the industrial world leader. We've discussed some of this in the past, and have highlighted how Eric Schiff's research showed how other countries (the Netherlands and Switzerland) industrialized by explicitly rejecting patents. The US didn't go that far, but it did involve quite frequent copying of the efforts of others and then improving on them, without fear of repercussions.In its adolescent years, the U.S. was a hotbed of intellectual piracy and technology smuggling, particularly in the textile industry, acquiring both machines and skilled machinists in violation of British export and emigration laws. Only after it had become a mature industrial power did the country vigorously campaign for intellectual-property protection.This is a point we've made many times as well. Patent and copyright system supporters frequently argue that stronger laws are needed to create incentives for creation and innovation. But, there are a ton of studies that show the actual pattern runs the other way. When you look at the pace of innovation before and after a change to patent laws, or if you do cross-country comparisons at the same time for similar types of economies, you quickly see that those with weaker laws show more innovation. The ratcheting up of patents is rarely about increasing incentives to innovate. Patents are put in place with the support of incumbents, knowing that it allows them to "exclude" competitors and upstarts. It is not a tool of innovation, but a tool to suppress disruptive innovation. Not having those laws (or having them widely ignored) leads to a situation in which people continually improve what's out there -- which is how the US economy took over the world during the industrial revolution.
The most candid mission statement in this regard was Alexander Hamilton’s “Report on Manufactures,” submitted to Congress in December 1791. “To procure all such machines as are known in any part of Europe can only require a proper provision and due pains,” Hamilton wrote. “The knowledge of several of the most important of them is already possessed. The preparation of them here is, in most cases, practicable on nearly equal terms.”In fact, as the article notes, our own original Patent Act recognized this very fact, by refusing to cover foreign inventions.
Notice that Hamilton wasn’t urging the development of indigenous inventions to compete with Europe but rather the direct procurement of European technologies through “proper provision and due pains” -- meaning, breaking the laws of other countries. As the report acknowledged, most manufacturing nations “prohibit, under severe penalties, the exportation of implements and machines, which they have either invented or improved.” At least part of the “Report on Manufactures” can therefore be read as a manifesto calling for state-sponsored theft and smuggling.
Of course, the idea that loose patent and copryight laws can help nations develop economically is not a new idea. Over a decade ago, we were writing about how various officials were admitting that strong IP laws probably did more harm than good for developing nations. And, yet, the US continues to try to push its extreme maximalism for copyright and patent laws around the globe. Either they are doing this out of ignorance (a real possibility) or because they actually understand the truth, which is that other countries with IP laws like the ones in the US will see a slow down in their economic development.
Either way, those who insist that the US was founded on the principles of strong respect for "intellectual property" haven't paid that much attention to the actual history of American industrialization.
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Filed Under: copying, fraud, industrial revolution, inventions, patents, piracy, us
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Why would they?
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Isn't it pretty obvious? If you don't have any protection you'll be forced to work to stay ahead. At least you'll need to copy it right (Samsung anyone?) but ultimately everyone will have to aim to get a head start or some early boost and instead of just riding this initial success the companies would be forced to keep innovating to keep this advantage.
It's fairly obvious to most of us but as it was wisely said once: It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
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Just as there's nothing wrong with torture as long as it's the US doing it, nothing wrong with waging aggressive war when it's the US doing it, nothing wrong with supporting terrorism if it's the US doing it.
What is so complicated here people, the US does things but doesn't want other people doing same to them, perfectly reasonable and I doubt very many in the US disagree with the principle of being unprincipled, especially when it's perfectly acceptable to call unprincipled, principled as long as it's the US doing it, ditto torture by any other name is not torture etc.
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Mmmmm. Drones. Nice patented drones.
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The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
"In its adolescent years the U.S." -- Well, besides that an entire continent was wide open except for a few pesky Indians and distant thieves with existing empires, we're now no longer adolescents. GROW UP.
Take a loopy tour of Techdirt.com! You always end up at same place!
http://techdirt.com/
A "safe haven" for pirates. Weenies welcome. Vulgarity cheered.
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Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
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Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
Other examples include anime dubbing, which owes its entire existence to the fact that the anime studios saw there was widespread bootlegging in the 80s and 90s, and decided to tap that demand.
What does it take to convince you that you're wrong? I've stated before that I will admit I'm wrong when I'm shown proof that something I say or believe in is false. What about you?
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Re: Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
The same amount of effort you would expend to calculate PI to the last decimal digit.
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Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
Yeah right.
Drone attacks that kill innocent civilians in the Middle East
Being so far up Israel's arse that you would sell out your own people to please such a 'friend'
Imposing you economic, military and cultural will on other nations with impunity
That sounds like adolescent behaviour to me.
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Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
Oh, wait, you're serious. In which case, let me steal someone else laughter.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
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Re: Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
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Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
Except that what was pointed out in the article is NOT theft.
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Really though, they didn't exactly have 18 wheelers to move this stuff around back then. The last thing you needed was someone chasing you for 12 days while you made a run for the border.
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Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
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Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
You're perfectly fine with it when your own message is 'strong patents and protections drive innovation' but when the proof is shown otherwise you denounce it as being circumstantial.
You're perfectly fine with it when your own numbers are based on factual inaccuracies, creative accounting, bias and ignoring specific values but when the proof is shown otherwise you denounce it as being inaccurate and unfounded and biased.
Basically your entire argument falls flat whenever you're presented with evidence contrary to your own because you can't possibly accept anything that doesn't fall within your predefined viewpoint.
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Re: Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
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Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
Actually, that's what you and others deny every day. That piracy and disrespect for intellectual "property" and the associated nonsense that goes with it CAN and HAS led to growth of industries, as well as economies. With the example being the U.S. in this case.
"Well, besides that an entire continent was wide open except for a few pesky Indians and distant thieves with existing empires, we're now no longer adolescents. GROW UP."
That last line is hilarious coming from the guy who goes into EVERY article, writes something along the lines of "blah blah blah nothing to write about, huh? lame!"
Also, in point of fact, while you may not think so, this country, the United States is very much still an adolescent when compared to the history of other countries around the world.
And to add to that, just look at your behavior and the behavior of other copyright maximalists, as well as the behavior of copyright holders in general. Completely adolescent. Throws tantrums regularly? Check. Moody and tempermental? Check. Flips the fuck out when they don't have their way? Check. Makes unreasonable demands on others? Check. Thinks the world revolves around them (and their wants and needs come first and foremost above everyone else's)? Check.
Should I go on, blue? You really screw yourself over with your own stupidity, you know that? You throw something out their as a dismissal, but you fail to think things through in a "can someone turn this around on me" manner. Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes, every single time you post.
Please, find a hobby and stop posting pointless dribble.
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Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
What a Pirate Freetard you are!
Come on don't avoid us embrace the traffic you will get!
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Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
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Re: The Kingdom of England was built by war and plunder.
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DO NOT FEED
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Re: DO NOT FEED
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Re: Re: DO NOT FEED
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Philo Farnsworth was the inventor of the transceiver camera (projected the TV image with a cathode ray tube onto a screen) which later became the camera tube with the help of others. He came up with and drew the circuitry plans when he was 14 and demonstrated it at age 20. Farnsworth's works were noticed by RCA's CEO, David Sarnoff who offered to buy the patent for $100,000 with the stipulation that he work for RCA as a developer. Farnsworth refused to take the offer and David Sarnoff produced them anyway while trying to sue Farnsworth trying to invalidate the patent so he could use it. Farnsworth finally won when his High School Chemistry Teacher dew up the design that was presented to him by Farnsworth and Farnsworth was awarded a one time $1,000,000 licensing fee for his device.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Farnsworth#Patents
Then we have the story of Edwin Howard Armstrong...the pioneer of FM radio.
His story is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Howard_Armstrong
Predates the suicide of Aaron Swartz by 59 years...and for the exact reasons. He spent 90% of his career butting his head against David Sarnoff in legal battles. Why? The original frequeancy range for FM radio was 42-50 MHz. All FM radios had that range at first. RCA's David Sarnoff pushed the FCC to move the FM radio spectrum frequency to where it is today so he could "make room" for the first television channel which relied on FM radio waves to work. It is speculated that he also did this because he saw FM Radio as a threat to AM Radio empire he owned. The shift happened so quickly that it rendered all FM radios carrying Armstrong receivers of that time useless.
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built on...continue to...
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But as hollywood shows, this isn't even between countries; they moved to LA for a reason. And it's quite natural that once you get your monies you'll do everything to let you keep getting more without any further work. It's also quite natural for a system to collapse when it is completely hollowed out. See history.
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Ridiculous
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Re: Ridiculous
So going with things that are simply not true again are we?
Apple is infamous, (to be more accurate, Steve Jobs) of taking others designs and inventions, and passing them off as their own, and then aggressively protecting what they did.
Why link us to your website, when you haven't updated it since last November? I see you still have up that megavidoemovies.net article. Newflash! Kim Dotcom had NOTHING to do with that site (a WHOIS search turns up addresses in the US, which is something that DotCom doesn't do nowadays).
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Re: Ridiculous
Wozniak didn't deliberately choose to work in the US. It's just where he was from. And he didn't concern himself with patents when initially developing the Apple I; it was a personal toy, made possible not from an investor's capital, but from MOS ripping off Motorola and bringing out the 6502 at a dirt cheap price that Woz could afford with the cash he had on hand.
Also the switching power supply wasn't Woz, it was Rod Holt. And it wasn't really as innovative or as much of an impact as you think.
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Re: Ridiculous
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"but no, I don't support piracy"
lol. You're such a colossal liar and buffoon, Masnick.
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Okay, let's say for the moment, that Mike is a supporter of piracy. Given the proof here that industrial growth happened in large part because of piracy, it would make sense for him to be a supporter, because then he can say "Piracy resulted in massive economic growth over a span of decades, whereas if you look at nations where IP laws are rigorously enforced, you don't see that same growth".
So please, tell us what it takes to change your tune, to finally admit that IP infringement is in fact for the better.
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And why would anyone want to lionize such an environment or return to it? Maybe Mike wants to talk about how great he thinks child slave labor is too.
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That's your problem, linking something that arguably has no victims (copyright infringement) to something that does (child labour). One is a legalized business model that relies on profiting off the works of others and is frequently abused so as not to pay the laborers while the other...huh now that I've gotten this far in the comment, its actually quite hard to tell the difference.
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In case you haven't realized it yet, serfs/child labourers don't have any option but to labour for free. They're basically slaves. Musicians aren't.
Then again, in saying we exploit musicians you're deliberately ignoring the many times the record labels have done just that.
It's now getting tiresome to argue with you when I don't even have to think to come up with a counter-argument for anything you say.
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He's just arguing that people who claim piracy prevents innovation and patents support innovation are full of absolute bullshit.
But thanks for twisting words.
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Just because the system we use now has industries that grow, you declare that they could not grow without that system, while historical record shows that this growth is in spite of the system we have in place and that the industries could be larger without being inhibited by this system.
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We are civilized now. Times are different and we must look to the future and not the past.
/sarc
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Now we let China fill that role.
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You see something that is really useful, that something being outside the US.
There is no law in the US that prevents the making, using, selling, etc. of that something...and you really want to make, use, sell, etc. that something.
So, you make it, use it, sell it, etc., which is entirely legal under US law.
Yes, that really is the same as piracy involving engaging in activities that are not legal under US law.
Got it...
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Robber Barons
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Sam Slater
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Slater
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The U.S. enshrined slavery in its Constitution which means the U.S. cannot now take a principled stand against slavery anywhere in the world, right?
Women didn't have the right to vote 200 years ago in the U.S. so we should stand idly by (which N.O.W. pretty much does anyway) while the Islamic world crushes the rights of Islamic women.
Until recently, homosexuals were considered an abomination in the U.S., so we should not encourage gay rights in foreign countries because that would be, you know, hypocritical of us.
And on and on ad nauseam. Bottom line: Tech Dirt never met a pirate it didn't love.
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Our Founders and Patents
Our Founders, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, recognized the importance of an orderly patent system (and copyright), and put these fundamental commercial rights into the Constitution so that individuals could invent and prosper. The later dominance of corporations has complicated this, but the idea is still there. Innovation is a good thing, and the patent system provides the mechanism for the protection of that innovation.
The suggestion that things would be better if we were to just revert to old time piracy is nonsensical and antithetical to the wishes of our Founders.
Ray Van Dyke
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Piracy is dangerous Masnick, and you've just become a target
In fact let's just declare this day Masnick's writings free to anyone and everyone.
What if nobody steals it?
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This is a good article that helps substantiate the fact that extended patent laws only slow down and strangle vital technological development. Makes me wonder if patent terms are too long also especially since the advantage is on the larger firms. Taking off from the industrial development it directly related to copyright angle...
Copyright restrictions are directly related to industrial growth because you cant build a mystery device, you need plans, specs and inside experience as found in books and journals.
I also think this also directly relates to (supposed?) problem related to the frozen nature of shared culture. In other words: We don't share enough! (of cultural items such as books, journals, music and such)
Often when growing I have heard the rumor (from several European immigrants) that Americans are barbarians in the area of culture. Young and immature was heard often. I wonder if that is related to copyright induced stagnation also? What do we think culture is and how it grows?
Shared culture can be like this essay of unoriginal ideas, concepts and even phrases (all aspects of culture) being collected and reused by me in a way that I have re shared what was shared to me. My only claim to original input it the way I knit them together and present the augment.
If our culture/history/industry was censored by copyright law how would we know? How would we recognize the blood stains and bones from the ashes? The real pirates seem to be the copyright industry.
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:(
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Yes. US industrial revolution was built on piracy and fraud
Any nation which by means of protective duties and restrictions on navigation has raised her manufacturing power and her navigation to such a degree of development that no other nation can sustain free competition with her, can do nothing wiser than to throw away these ladders of her greatness, to preach to other nations the benefits of free trade, and to declare in penitent tones that she has hitherto wandered in the paths of error, and has now for the first time succeeded in discovering the truth"
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