cme@ellisun.sw.stratus.com (Carl Ellison) (01/04/91)
Read some Agatha Christie. She keeps warning people about accepting cover stories. You'll never solve mysteries if you buy the excuses of the guys who done it. In article <1991Jan3.232017.15364@Think.COM> barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin) writes: >In article <14511@hoptoad.uucp> gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: >>Why does the US government think that privacy is something neither its >>subjects, nor the citizens of other countries, should have? > >There are a couple of reasons. First of all, it's high-tech, and there are >export regulations on most of our higher technologies. I think the purpose >of this is to try to make sure we maintain the lead in *applications* of >high technology; for instance, we can maintain the lead in weather >simulation, which generally requires supercomputers, by making it hard for >foreigners to get supercomputers. Last time I looked, we were upset that people *weren't* buying our supercomputers. That doesn't sound like an attempt to make it hard for foreigners to get them. The real reason I'm posting is that I balk at this notion that we have a lead we're preserving. I used to work for a company which had the world lead in real-time 3D computer graphics equipment. All the time we had the undisputed lead, there was no big concern about secrets. There didn't have to be. We had the lead in the world because we had the brains. We kept ahead by inventing and developing faster than anyone else could even copy (not true, but that was the attitude). Then, gradually over the years, the "businessmen" took over. People who were a real pain in the ass -- people who didn't take direction -- were put on short leashes or put into padded cells. Those who didn't like that treatment left -- or were laid off. Year followed year and there were no really new inventions. Our lead in the world started to dwindle. THAT's when intellectual property became a hot topic. There were some of us old-timers who had never signed a proprietary rights agreement. Suddenly, we were being threatened (with non-specific punishment) if we didn't. At the same time, the lawyers got busy writing obnoxious letters to ex-employees, threatening them with lawsuit if they were to give any ideas to a competitor. Other lawyers got busy trying to enforce patents which had been held for years and which nobody had bothered to enforce. No -- when I see our government trying (rather pathetically) to keep secret things which are clearly in the public domain -- I see yet another verification that we're a first-world country heading rapidly to third-world status. Rather than buy it when people say they're trying to "maintain our lead" -- think instead of a roadside restaurant which has a big sign reading "GOOD FOOD". --Carl