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Patently stupidPatently stupidPosted Oct 9, 2012 20:58 UTC (Tue) by gdt (subscriber, #6284)In reply to: Patently stupid by man_ls Parent article: The Patent, Used as a Sword (New York Times)
That is like asking a fireman about wildfires. What are you implying here? That firefighters promote wildfires -- which destroy property and often lives -- to retain their jobs? Because although I have re-read your words a number of times I can't see that they can be read any other way. Wrong and offensive conspiracy theory lunacy. LWN used to be better than this.
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Patently stupid Posted Oct 9, 2012 22:21 UTC (Tue) by price (subscriber, #59790) [Link]
Rather than reading the comment as suggesting a conspiracy theory (which would indeed be an insane one), I recommend reading it as a confusingly expressed reference to some unknown other thought. As you suggest, that's more like the LWN we know (though a clearly expressed thought would be even more so.)
Perhaps the commenter was thinking of the debate and in-recent-decades shift in practices (in the US and possibly other places) from routinely suppressing all fires in large parks to letting small wildfires burn. Or perhaps something else.
Patently stupid Posted Oct 10, 2012 5:28 UTC (Wed) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link] Yes, you are exactly right: it was a confused analogy, but at the moment (and with a rampaging viral infection) I could not come up with anything better. Instead of fireman I should have said "asking an arsonist about fires" -- firemen have a clear duty to control wildfires, while arsonists profit from fire.But there is a better fire-related analogy in History: Crassus (of the first triumvirate with Cesar and Pompey). Whenever there was a fire in Rome he went with his firemen and offered to buy the burning property for a small amount; then they quickly put out the fire. As the fire progressed he lowered the price and he even let the fire consume the building if there was no agreement. That (and the condemnation of at least one innocent man) was the source of his vast fortune. Asking Crassus about firefighting laws would not have been a very good idea.
Patently stupid Posted Oct 10, 2012 5:48 UTC (Wed) by price (subscriber, #59790) [Link]
> Asking Crassus about firefighting laws would not have been a
> very good idea.
Indeed not. And, as with patents today, one suspects that anyone considering a change in firefighting laws would have heard from him very loudly and clearly.
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