Originally Posted by
invisiblehand
It is progress.
Does your local supermarket rip-off Joseph Bayer when they sell generic aspirin? Is it a good thing that low-cost pharmaceuticals are available to the masses after the patent expires?
If you believe that Bayer is getting ripped-off, then I can understand your response. If you believe that cheap availability of a wonder drug like aspirin is a bad thing, then I can understand your response.
Anyway, we have already talked about patents with regards to Merc. Perhaps Strida can get a copyright on the design too.
Oh, for crying out loud! Aspirin was invented in 1899, the patents have long expired, and you won't raise an eyebrow marketing your own unless you call it "Bayer". Your analogy is misleading. Here's another analogy: Rolex watches and Louis Vuitton purses are counterfeited, too. I don't know about you, but I have no interest in buying watches from under some stranger's overcoat on the street or purses from a flea market tent. Look at the fake Strida ads - they don't even bother to use their own photos! Why make the effort to use your own when you can steal the ads, photos and reviews of the product you're ripping off? Does this not bother you?
Think about this for a moment: If someone invests their creative talent and physical effort to develop an innovative product and brings it to market under protection of internationally recognized IP laws but an unauthorized, illegal, blatantly-direct copy is irresistibly cheaper, that makes it "okay" to patronize the faker? Why would anyone bother to invent anything?
Tell me, please: WHERE IS THE PROGRESS IN THAT?