Patents, Patents, Patents... and more Copyrights are coming around the corner. I was checking out the mmosite forums and I notice that some people are talking about the recent lawsuits between NCSoft and Bluehole, the Richard Garriott vs NCSoft lawsuit and a few other things about patents and how good or evil they are to the mmo industry. Unfortunately I have to use my blog to explain a few things about those patents and copyrights...

Well... I am going to be very brief and straight to the point... (Ya right.. lol!)

A friggin Patent protects an invention, a Copyright protects an original artistic work (songs, artwork, books, games!)...

Patents are good for 20 years and Copyrights are good for my whole lifetime plus 70 years lol!

The idea behind patents and copyrights is that you have a fair chance to get money out of your invention, if I made the invention it is kinda fair that I am the one making money out of it and not someone else... If you dont like that idea then you are just an opportunistic that wants to take advantage of someone else without giving him anything...

Look at the NCSoft vs Bluehole case. They are fighting over the copyrights of certain content in TERA. The same goes to other games and systems preceding the mmo age. I made this and I own it, it is fair that I am the one making money out of it and not you. Why do you think that selling piracy is against the law.

What really puzzles me is that some people think that Patents and Copyrights are bad because they slow down innovation, I dont know where exactly this guys get the information from, but this 2 mechanisms exist to give inventors and artists a fair chance when it comes to financial benefit...

They had nothing to do with innovation at all, the only people that is mad at this laws or government features are the people whos brain is not big enough to make their own inventions or artistic creations and the ones that want things to appear out of a magic wand...

Oh!!! But what if I am the inventor and do nothing about it!!!! Well, that is patent trolling and I can lose the patent in some cases, in some others everyone is out of luck and they have to wait 20 years while I just do NOTHING!!!!

Now the final point!!! Copyright!??? Is this thing good for the mmo industry!!!! Yes it is!!!! It let developers get the money they need out of their hard work... Without copyrights everyone will be using the stuff made by someone else for their own personal gain and no one is going to be able to do anything without going into bankruptcy in less than a week...