FB copying Google?
This article is about facebook allegedly ‘copying’ google’s idea of personalization for the users. Facebook announced several new features to users’ privacy settings, most notable, a new “tag approval” system. This system allows users to reject or approve any photo which they are tagged before it appears in their profile page or the newsfeed. Some are wondering if the increased control that facebook is giving to its users is a direct result of the growing success of Google+ which has been praised for its flexible interface. The central TOK issue that arises from this article is the notion that an idea can be owned.
The article: http://news.yahoo.com/
What would happen if ideas can be patented and subject to copyright law?
The copyright law states that anything that has been patented cannot be copied without the owner’s permission. In today’s time copyright infringement can be followed with a $2500 fine and much more if a corporate company decides to sue. However can someone patent an idea? Can a company like facebook be sued for copying google’s ideas? By patenting an idea, the person who originally came up with it can be credited for his or her discovery and creativity and be rightfully awarded for it. It would force more creativity onto the market as companies must fight to get their ideas out first, which in turn would be helpful for the general public. Everything would be original, and only the truly creative will be able to succeed, however can similar ideas really be suppressed?
However, if all similar ideas were shunned and disregarded, how can it be perfected? Because ideas cannot be patented, the same idea can be expanded and perfected as much as possible. With google and facebook, they are both aiming for the ability to personalize a social network as the user pleases in order to attract more users. If after google came out with a prototype for the personalization and publish it, they won’t stick to making Google+ as good as possible, because the market is in new innovative ideas, not the old. It seems to be pretty ridiculous for people to argue over who came out with what first, when application and function are more important. Users will tend to use something that is easy to navigate through and useful, not what it originally was. In fields more than just the realm of social networks, advancement is what we should be aiming for, not originality, and therefore ideas should never be patented.
Application in real-life situations
This notion can also be related to the field of smart phones. This is an extremely competitive part of the market right now in that each company, Apple, Motorola, HTC, Samsung…etc, are all vying to create the ‘perfect’ smart phone in the sense that it will be accepted by a majority of the general public as the best. Perfect as in something that will garner that most income. If the companies stopped at the first iPhone and said that it was good enough as it already is, nothing will ever be improved. The notion that ideas cannot be taken Human civilization flourishes because of its constant advancement, because people can take original ideas and build upon them. Although sources point to Facebook updating its utility because of Google+, it should not be what we focus on. Instead, we should focus on which one turned out to be the more popular amongst the general public.
This similar topic was mentioned in my B5 class by Christine, who talked about how Apple is sueing HTC about stealing their touch-screen function. Not only is this a war between HTC and Apple many other cell phone companies are involved as well, one example would be Samsung. An executive at Samsung said that "more than 50% of an iPhone's components (by value) are made by Samsung”, so this raises the question of whether or not iPhone is just copying Samsung? If just an idea can be patented then, it would become a world where everyone tries to grab onto something and patent it immediately. It is also possible for people to come up with the same idea around at the same time therefore it becomes hard to determine who owns what. In this blog post, Ming Ray seems to state that ideas should not be patented, and I seem to disagree with that. If nothing is patented then it would become easy for another company to steal off the technology of others and claim that it is there. One company could just buy a product, which another company spent tons of money and time on, and simply take it apart to research and then replicate. This would then result in nobody wanting to come up with new ideas as it would simply be copied by someone else and little money will be earned. The part which I agree with Ming Ray is the part where people have to need to build on one another in order to improve, if one just releases something that stops at the point, there will be little room for improvement. The only problem here is how one can decide when to stop improving and when there is perfection; if it actually exists.
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking, almost everything new that we try to invent, write or come up with technically will have been thought of or created by someone. Therefore if the issue of that idea(s) can be patented is true and the person can be subjected to copyright law, we will all in short assumption be broke by now. Reasoning and logic are raised in the issue presented in the article above. To which degree can an idea or ideas be patented or not? Who should be responsible in deciding this? This questions seems to be the constantly debated in the issue following to the copyright law. Multiple perspectives should be taken considerations when looking upon this issue. One for most, the 'idea' that was invented must be judge upon before any copyright law or infringements are filed. For instance, the uniqueness of the idea or differentiation from other ideas can be a basis on deciding whether the ideas is valid to be patented. However this shouldn't be to sole basis to the degree of which an idea or ideas can be patented. As mention by Sony, if nothing is patented then it would be easy for other people jus to make profits out of one person's idea. On the other hand, if every idea in this world is patented, we will be living in a world where everyone will sue the other for copyright law.
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