• @BigPotato@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    93 hours ago

    Imagine if you had a hammer and decided to use it to hit a nail and then someone came along and said “I see you’re using my method to build a house! Pay up!”

    Well, you can’t patent something like that!

    Imagine you open up a game engine, any engine, and decide you need to point to an objective so you decide to use an arrow. A game company says “You’re using our method to identify objectives! Pay up!” and that one is a unique mechanic?

    How long has humanity been using arrows to point to things? How can you patent it just because it’s a digital arrow?

        • @finitebanjo@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          -3
          edit-2
          2 hours ago

          No, the very premise of that user’s analogy is that he isn’t profiting from it. If somebody invented hammering nails literally this year and a company came in selling it as a product without permission, then it would be comparable. It reads as if he failed to read my comment entirely but still replied with multiple paragraphs.

          The game development analogy is better, floating arrows about characters heads was actually patented, but it was widely criticized and it expired in 2019. Plus I already took offense to simple mechanisms and especially certain software and firmware solutions.

            • @finitebanjo@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              -22 hours ago

              Countless buildings would never be built if you didnt invent hammer and nails, being paid royalties for a few years by large businesses who make use of it seems pretty fair.

                • @finitebanjo@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  2
                  edit-2
                  2 hours ago

                  We’re very clearly not talking about history, we’re talking about the ridiculous hypothetical of if Hammering Nails to build Houses was patented today.

                  I can understand why you’d think that was fucking silly, my original response to it was “jfc this guy”

                  • @TachyonTele@lemm.ee
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    1
                    edit-2
                    1 hour ago

                    Yeah pretty much, that comment set the mood. I’m cool, I hope you are too.

                    It is interesting as a thought experiment if very basic human improvements could have been shut out from other people using them.

                    What if, for example, Plato was able to “copy right” his ideas. Or if any of the ideas from the Renaissance where prevented from being iterated on. Would we have the scientific method today?

                    Edit: Electricity? Pfft have fun with only one person owning the right to use it for 175 years. Next to no improvements for almost two centuries.