From: Damphyr Date: 2006-02-03T07:24:14+09:00 Subject: Re: About rant on Dave Thomas site, titled 'imitation...' Matthew Smillie wrote: >> >> Neither one of these two scenarios is hypothetical; this stuff >> happens. >> > > Yep. I've reinvented tons of things. Generally it happens like > this: I'm working on a problem, and I get a seed of an idea. I flesh > it out for a couple of weeks, and get to the point where I can > accurately describe it and start to implement it. It's usually > around then that I find out that someone published this in the last > couple of years. The Just look at my post about callbacks and events: me reinventing the Observer during a complete memory blackout :). The problem with any system enforcing the rights of individuals is the point where the enforcement stops being for the individual and becomes enforcement for enforcement's sake. Whenever a law ceases to be justice (and laws are seldom just in all their facets) it becomes a problematic burden exploitable by the few and savvy. Unfortunately the "solution" nowadays is to wrap everything in clauses, exceptions and bureaucracy. Inevitably you get a situation where illegality becomes a norm because the law is unjust. In times past similar situations lead to revolutions. Control can turn to oppression very easily (the subject of patterns and intellectual rights is very much a subject of control) and unfortunately humans tend to want to control everything, starting from their environment and ending with their thoughts. Personally I think that a broad mind and a proactive attitude is necessary in a large scale to keep such oppression from happening. This requires education, mostly the capacity to seek multiple points of view before judging. Would you teach your kids to think even if at the end they are going to disagree with you? I know a lot of people who won't and I find it sad because they produce fodder for the indefinable "they" to whom we attribute all the evils of this world, be it government or corporations, sects or cartels. This is getting way off topic. V.- -- http://www.braveworld.net/riva ____________________________________________________________________ http://www.freemail.gr - ������ �������� ������������ ������������. http://www.freemail.gr - free email service for the Greek-speaking.