Regulation

Broadcasters are trying to claim ownership over anything they broadcast. This would add new restrictions on broadcast content in addition to copyright. This seems like a new, phony intellectual property right.

Samsung is busting Apple for stealing other people's IP.

"Now that it's Samsung's turn to present its case in the San Jose, California patent trial that regularly has the tech media abuzz, the company is taking an interesting approach. Rather than start out by arguing that its various Android smartphones and tablets do not copy Apple's designs or infringe on its patents, Samsung is arguing that Apple's IP is invalid to begin with. On Monday, Samsung argued that Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent was stolen from Mitsubishi's old Diamond Touch and on Tuesday evening, Samsung made a similar argument regarding the design of Apple's iPad. Samsung on Tuesday presented the jury with videotaped testimony from Roger Fidler, head of the digital publishing program at the University of Missouri. In his testimony, Fidler stated that he began work on a tablet design in 1981. 'Apple personnel were exposed to my tablet ideas and prototypes,' he testified, adding that Apple staff saw his designs in the mid-1990s."

I love this. This shows the moral bankruptcy of patents. There's nothing new under the son. There is only building upon things others have done before. Of course, that's not the fundamental moral bankruptcy. The fundamental moral bankruptcy of IP is that all supposed IP is a ban on innovation by others enforced at the point of the government's gun.