sam houshower samhoushowerkeionlineorg picked textplain multipartalternative httpwwwnewyorkercomtalkfinancial20080811080811ta_talk_surowiecki permission problem james surowiecki new yorker august 11 2008 second decade twentieth century almost impossible build airplane united states result chaotic legal battle among dozens companies including one owned orville wrightthat held patents various components made plane go one could manufacture aircraft without fear hauled court first world war got industry started congress realized something needed done get planes air created patent pool putting aircraft patents control new association letting manufacturers license fee congress stepped might still flying around blimps situation grounded us aircraft industry example columbia law professor michael heller new book gridlock economy calls anticommons hear lot tragedy commons valuable asset grazing field say held common individual try exploit much possible villagers send cows graze time soon field useless theres ownership pursuit individual selfinterest make everyone worse heller shows much ownership creates problems many people individual parts valuable asset easy end gridlock since one person simply veto use asset commons leads overuse destruction anticommons leads underuse waste cultural sphere ever tighter restrictions copyright fair use limit artists abilities sample build older works art biotechnology explosion patenting past twentyfive yearsparticularly efforts patent things like gene fragmentsmay retarding drug development making hard create new drug without licensing myriad previous patents even divided land ownership unforeseen consequences wind power instance could reliably supply twenty per cent americas energy needsbut new transmission lines built allowing efficient movement power places generated places consumed dont count happening anytime soon land grid would pass owned individuals nobody wants power lines running back yard point isnt private property bad thing state able run roughshod rights individual owners property rights including patents essential economic growth providing incentives innovate invest property rights need limited effective divide common resources like science culture small fencedoff lots heller shows difficult make people business build something new innovation investment growth end stifled opportunities forgone arent always easy see effects overuse generally unmistakableyou cant miss empty nets fishing boats working overfished oceans scrub covers overgrazed field effects underuse created much ownership often invisible theyre mainly things dont happen inventions dont get made useful drugs never get market theory one able break gridlock striking deal would leave sides better sometimes happens week instance nokia qualcomm settled threeyear long patent battle could accelerate spread third generation cellphone technology europe less contentious fashion products like dvd player quickly became mainstream affordable many companies worked together form patent pools even fact theres music radio result songwriters collectively allowing two main groups ascap bmi handle licensing songs radio stations one reason deals founder simply many interested parties order create new drug strike bargains thirty forty companies easy decide price high often things go awry owners wont make deal reasonable price americas nascent aircraft industry take problem bedevils oilandgas industry different companies adjacent patches oil field tempted drill patch also try suck resources neighbors patch geological reasons overdrilling actually reduces total amount oil get fieldall sides end worse obvious solution one company drilling share revenues players economics professor gary libecap shown historical analysis agreements often reached belatedly ever recent experimental work psychologist sven vanneste legal scholar ben depoorter helps explain something necessary success venture even contribution small youll tend ask amount close full value venture since everyone position also thinks deserves huge sum venture quickly becomes unviable next time start handing new ownership rightswhether via patents copyright privatization schemeswed better try weigh good things wont happen result otherwise wont know weve missing _______________________________________________ iphealth mailing list iphealthlistsessentialorg httplistsessentialorgmailmanlistinfoiphealth tue 05 aug 2008 230839 0400 iphealth james surowiecki many stakeholders dealbreaker