Thanks to Luis () for the following links from sfgate.

Dean’s speech I spent over an hour (and $5.50) getting to and missed:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/09/07/MN31311.DTL

The animal rights movement marches forward, for meat eaters.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/09/07/MN165897.DTL

A modest intellectual property proposal.

Food for thought: An IP system.

So, I mentioned to Steve (recent date, not first bf) on date #1 that I thought IP was broken and needed to be reworked. As a consequence of that conversation, some ideas have started to crystalize.

The big picture flaws I see are consolidation of IP into the hands of large corporations, such that any rewards of creativity are dependent on your employer (the same individual that made the engineer/inventor sign away his rights in the first place), and similar effects for artists. Further, it enables profit-maximizing entities an amazing consolidation of power, which, of course, breeds a desire for more power, the better to maximize profit, without those pesky legal barriers.

Another interesting effect (noted in Guns, Germs, and Steel) is that invention is a process not unlike the lottery, where few people make it big, but those who do make it big, got there because of all the people who did not make it big (standing on the shoulders of giants, and all that.) I don’t think this is as applicable to artistic IP, but haven’t thought as much about that. This lottery-esque setup is one reason we have our current ip situation.

Another is that creative efforts (at least technological ones) are capital intensive. A new solution would have to provide an incentive to holders of capital to get involved in the process.

Basically, the idea I have in mind is that a person would never be able to sign over ip. An alternative, which I am more ambivalent about would be not being able to sign over ip until after it has been produced.

Under the original proposal, one could auction off the right to produce n units of whatever. IP owner can sell limited rights. Monopolies can be prevented/limited by mandating that production rights be made available to a few or several parties, in the case of books, you can sell to one house that specializes in unbound, ultra cheap printing, and some that specialize in hardbacks with handtooled leather at obscene prices, as well as the standard options now available.

N% goes to the IP Owner(s), divided equitably, M% goes to assisting agencies (owner of the particle accelerator, etc), L% goes to preceding generations of patents (using a decay scheme or something related, L/2% going to the first generation, L/4% to the generation before that, etc), and K% goes to the agency handling the immense beauracratic overhead I’m proposing. (Positions elected by patent/copyright holders, including artistic reps by medium and scientific/engineering reps by field, with government oversight and public access to records).

This office of intellectual property could assist promising looking research, maybe even research of signs of promising/lucrative research efforts.

Flaws:
Bundled goods: how much is the carbuerator worth, vs the spark plugs (bad example since they _are_ sold separately, but hopefully you get the idea.
Entry costs: how to support the inventor in the initial, unprofitable stages.

The latter can be partially addressed by the proposed office of intellectual property. I’ll claim the former isn’t really addressed any better in the current system.

Major benefits: Kiss monopolies goodbye. Say hello to scientist directed research. Furthermore, the non-transferable ip allows for something more closely approximating a free market, which I’ll claim is actually a good thing.

Three exciting events for the evening

1) There’s a democratic presidential nominee debate in albuquerque. It’s being tivo’ed.

2) Our house wobbled, I felt it wobble, and I jumped up to get the fuck out before the ceiling fell in on me, but it was a quickly over & done kind of thing. Most extreme earthquake I’ve experienced.

3) Having my second date with Steve this evening.

Speaking of 3, I should probably go tidy up my room. It’s a sty. =)

job application

I sent in a resume to a job listing from the cmu alum mailing list for paypal. Down in mountainview. If I got the job, I could do lunch with & on a regular basis, perhaps. And I could certainly haul my ass out of debt within a year. But about that class I’m taking, and that whole planned trajectory for my life, it would almost certainly do unpleasant things. OTOH, if things work out with Steve (palo alto ip lawyer guy), hmmm… =)

monogamy position clarification

I’m not in favor of absolutely open relationships any more than I’m in favor of absolutely closed ones. In a relationship I’d ideally like to be free to mess around in a no-penetration-even-if-barriers-are-involved (oral included as penetration) sort of way, and do that rarely, and with decreasing frequency, and have it be a very symmetric setup.

The number of people who are exclusively into anal sex disturbs me. I mean, sure, the prostate is a wonderful thing, and everyone should experience the joy, but, uh, major std risks, pain (in my experience pain is typical, though not universal), and smelly messiness. <shrug> To each their own, I suppose. My own is far more in the oral camp. =)