Not everybody is interested in money (Did you read the word ‘not?’).
There are some people who have different motivations. Here is an
example.
Hidden from the
world, working secretly and steadily for a long time, just a few
weeks ago, Jim Brown discovered a medicine that completely cures
cancer. Because of the advancement of science and technology, he was
quite sure that there would be other persons (and companies) very
close to the same discovery. He did not want this new drug to be a
block-buster, money-spinner drug for a mega-bucks multi-national
company. He did not like the idea that someone would patent such a
drug and deprive the society of easy access to the medicine. He was
in an anti-patent state of mind for this particular drug. It may
sound paradoxical, but now he intends to file for a patent.
Anti-climax?
A patent acquired to
stop others from patenting the invention with the intention to serve
social cause is termed as ‘social patenting.’ The idea is
catching on because several big companies want to take visible actions
that showcase their social responsibility. In fact, a company which
obtains several patents to make profits, would also acquire “social
patents” to win over (or at least, confuse) the anti-patent lobby.
The process to
obtain such patents is almost the same, but the implementation phase is
different. As for Mr. Jim Brown, that’s not his real name and he is not
even a real person. However, we hope there are several Jim Browns
working on their inventions on this day and at this hour, so that
society would benefit sooner or later. In fact, everyone should patent
their inventions. Because inventions are inventions, regardless of the
intentions.
Copyleft
A copyleft is to copyright, what a social patent is to a patent. If you
apply the principles and motivations of the social patents to a
copyright, it will be termed as copyleft. In other words, the copyright
material is developed and used for social benefit, but the rules of
copyrights are used against profiteers. This can also be used by
companies to highlight their actions on social responsibility. The
process for obtaining a copyright is the same, but the different
implementation will make it a copyleft.
Again, everyone’s creative output, and fruit of labor must be protected
by a copyright, regardless of the ‘direction’ he would choose to go
subsequently.
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