“Eastman Kodak claims that Apple Computers and Research in Motion are guilty of infringement of patents. Kodak has taken the step to request the U.S. International Trade Commission prevent both companies from importing their smart phones into the United States. Nokia filed a similar complaint in December 2009.” – from bettertrades.com
I can’t tell if this is satire or not… but that’s the nature of the beast. Intellectual Property enforcement has become so weird and extreme that… well, it is actually hard to tell if some things are satire or not.
It must be as clear as day by now that the entire system is unworkable, and either needs to be rolled back to the more sane system that existed about 250 years ago… or just scrapped completely. There seems to be (well actually, there IS) and entire parasitic economy based upon swooping on anything successful and suing for breach of IP. Avatar had loads of them.
There have been two particularly farcical incidents Down-Under recently, when use of a would-be national flag has been stopped because some deeply unenlightened person somewhere owns the IP on it. One was the Aboriginal flag vs Google – the other was in NZ, involving some kerfuffle with an MP and a clash of interests.
I really do hope that iPhone imports (I thought they were already American?) get blocked – in the vain hope that it might wake people to the idea that THE main thing “chilling” innovation is this ludicrous system of laws we have – to protect micro-monopolies on the utterly uncontainable.
The law is fucking wrong. It needs to be got rid of.
Lego-Based Copy-Monopoly Liberation 
The Wordpress of Cellphones
The War on Internet Freedom : Various TV Bits
The Curse of DRM
Process Is King
Army (Navy) of floating Androids
The End of Aptera: The difference between Open and Closed source
Microsoft's Accidental Abolish-IP Advert
FOs
Siri
On Addiction
And The Void Mooned Back...
The Spirit Of The World
A Machine to Steal Souls
More Anti Digital
Thync
Robotic Sensory Loops and Whatnot
Cartestian Robot Roundup.
Post-Scarcity Link-Dump
Servo Bender
Sometimes all of Reality itself seems utterly satirical. Harder and harder to discern any difference these days.
I heard an anti-lack of intellectual property argument yesterday, whereby they felt that if IP laws weren’t strongly enforced then all creative artists would be forced to become hobbyists rather than contracted professionals.
To that I say; a) Yes! b) Hallelujah c) All creative artists should be passionate amateurs rather than corporate controlled sell-outs d) even if the selling out provides them with food and shelter.
I do agree that the patent system has problems. However, I think Apple is a bad poster boy for this. Don’t take my word for it, take Steve Jobs’ word for it: ‘We’ve Always Been Shameless About Stealing Great Ideas’
The iPhone is mostly derivative and based on technologies from Nokia, Palm, Danger (now Google), HTC, and, yes, Kodak. If anybody deserves to get sued over these kinds of patents, it’s Apple.