This question dealing with (intellectual) property, patents, trademarks, copyrights and -lefts as well as natural and artificial scarcity concerns me time and again.
Credit: Uni Basel
If you discuss it with someone from the pharma industry you tend to think that world wouldn’t go round any further if you abolish patents. Contrawise some people promote that providing all knowledge for free would be the salvation of the world. As often assumedly none of the extreme positions will be the solution. But where is the optimal point to put the slider on this bar?
Luis Villa writes in his blog: I’m OK with charging for things that really are scarce- cars, service, etc., but creating artificial scarcity, either through the use of patents, copyrights, or trademarks, or by allowing others to use trade secret and SaaS tactics to take data from the commons and then proprietarize it, seems problematic.
Maybe we should be allowed to use all intellectual property free of charge but with the condition to name the proprietor (simmilar to scientific citation). But can we force everyone to publish his knowledge or at least a large portion? No, we can not! But doesn’t cause this the end of free available / common knowledge? Not, it doesn’t either because reality teaches us the contrary. Should we treat the “receipt” of a medicament and the code of a software the same? Where are the boundaries between things that can be protected and things that can’t? What ist common property/knowledge?
One question leads to another and the problem seems to have no beginning and no end. Unfortunately I also dont’t have a solution 
but I’m looking forward to some more interessting viewpoints and discussions on this topic.
Finally my only conclusion is that I tend to decontrol a bit more for example in trademark practice and patent law on the one hand but always to name the originator of a product/idea/… when using or copying it. This provides appreciation and maybe in succession financial benefits for the creator.
Most countries in the third world never respects intellectual property rights. piracy is so rampant in asian countries.*-’
Left by Connor Bell on May 25th, 2010
intellectual property is not really respected in most countries in asia where piracy is so rampant.”`
Left by Ewan Matthews on July 23rd, 2010