Matthew’s Thoughts on Copyrights and Patents

 

For young entrepreneurs today there is a mounting issue that does not seem to be going away any time soon. While the general public may not be aware trolls are controlling our current patent system, and no I do not mean the type that you see under a bridge. These patent trolls are companies and wealthy individuals that file vague patents so that they can sue inventors who may accidently create something that a troll has a patent on. For this exact reason our patent and copyright system is currently in danger and while it may seem like we have a great system, the companies with more money and power are stopping inventors from having creative freedom, due to the fear of companies taking all profits. This idea is lengthened upon in The Economist article “Trolls on the Hill”. The reason I began to open with the facts of patent trolls is because I believe this is vital information in the understanding of patent and copyright analysis. Not only do we see issues in inventions, but also in the media industry there has been a shift away of how to handle fraud and stealing of property.

Currently if I was to log online I would have the ability to illegally download books, movies, and TV shows, all three goods that usually cost a lot to purchase.  With the surfacing of Internet piracy, firms have moved away from outright purchases of shows to subscription services that stream the shows to any device. For these reasons media conglomerates don’t see a need to care about piracy, due to advanced advertising techniques they make all the money they need through streaming, substantially driving down costs for songs, movies, and TV shows. But one major form of mass-market entertainment, books are keeping their prices at a high cost. Due to the fact streaming books is not widely done, books are not held in the same pricing scheme as other media. While books are cheaper to produce there is not true way to reap the same profits from books and movies. The difference in means of profits creates a divide between the two.

Now when it comes to valuating a patent or a piece of media what truly decides it is how well the item will end up selling for. While it may be the easy way out to say the market decides a price, they truly do decide the price. By either buying or not buying a product at a certain price the market lets the companies know whether or not it was an acceptable price. To say an idea has value also hold meaning considering if a concept is great then people will pay a lot for the idea, and they will pay for a great concept even if it doesn’t work out. When dealing with patents and copyrights it’s a difficult situation due to the fact that people’s ideas and livelihoods are truly at stake when they put them into copyrights or patents. In the next few years due to technological advances I expect a reform of the patent and copyright market.

Karl Marx on the Struggle of Entrepreneurs

Invention is dead, if my friend Fredric Engels was here with me he would agree without a second thought. While it may seem like invention and inventors are thriving, this is not the case. After going to work on this sleek metal rectangle, in which data lies, I have found a false belief that entrepreneurs are thriving in the current markets. This however is not what is actually at hand in the United States. We are seeing a façade that is fueled by the belief that making a website where people can tell you when they had their breakfast and what it looked like, is a real productive invention. The only practical use for a website like this is for news, which many “sites” have already accomplished. Multiple new products that no one uses do not drive a true period of production and invention, but it is actually driven by Universal Labour, which is all scientific work with discovery and invention, causing a more successful economy. To be a period of invention usually these two rules are met:

1. A great difference in cost between the first construction of a good and a new machines use.
2. It is usually more expensive to make something that has never been done. Inventions usually rise up on another inventions ruins.

This is the case throughout my time and partially the current era where great pioneering entrepreneurs go bankrupt and only their successors flourish. Currently the state of the US economy lends itself to a false belief that invention is thriving.

After doing more searching I came across an article one a page called the “Huffington Post”, the article truly understands how times for entrepreneurs are grim. The article begins discussing how technology is giving off a belief that becoming an inventor is easily done. Statistically entrepreneurs and new business are on the decline, and the only way to make it become easier is to release the capitalist stranglehold. Loosened regulations for inventors will create a perfect system for a nation to all benefit off of others inventions. Another article has crossed my path that seems to disagree with my belief that being an entrepreneur is hard.  The Economist states that the advantage is to America and how it is the land of the free and the land of the entrepreneur. While I have to agree it has the best theatre for production it does not achieve this goal due to large corporations oppression of small businesses. In the first article I referenced from the Huffington Post Mr. Josephs article he strongly agrees with the fact that the age of Internet and big corporations are pushing small businesses out of work.

 The Economist begins saying that America is the place for entrepreneurship, but in an article published December 7^th they discuss a different scenario. Aptly named Trolls on the hill the article discusses how large corporations are destroying small business by filing for vague patents so that when a product is made they can attempt to claim royalties. If the United States were truly friendly to the workingman and entrepreneurs it would destroy these patent trolls with a quick strike of the hammer of justice. Not only do these lawsuits infringe upon people actually working they clog up the legal system within the US.

If I had the opportunity I would write another manifesto, but this time it would come by the name of the Entrepreneurship Manifesto. The current state of production is sickening and it is pathetic to see that large companies, who crush the workingman under their bank accounts, are favored. If the US is truly to return to a state where entrepreneurs want to immigrate to it must begin reform immediately.