Judging by his tweets, he's been busy camping out at the Occupy Wallstreet events, and offering his flat as a place for other protestors to shit, shower, and sleep. (Though I didn't realize the OWS guys were homeless)

Um, how is ten BTC at $2 a coin any different than two BTC at $10 a coin?

You're not retiring tomorrow, are you? So why sell? Freaking out and selling stocks in exchange for bonds is how many destroyed their retirements in 2008, especially since they missed the 50% to 80% rebound that shortly followed.

No, I am saying that even with current laws on the books, the application of laws to protect ideas seems arbitrary and inconsistent.

It is an argument against the idea that IP laws are the only, or even the best, way for creators to get compensated for their intellectual creations. Also I guess pointing out that the idea of intellectual property is meaningless if no one is willing to pay for it, even if its creation involved over ten years of very rigorous work.

OP, are you worried that Bitcoin will die, or just that it may take a lot of time and patience for it to get anywhere?

You're relying on the "because that's the way it is in current law" fallacy again. My recipe may be the thing my restaurant or soda is dependent on, and is thus of great value to me and my company. So why can't I get protection?

Unless people see more than 50% control as a threat and chose to go with competitors.
(Mining pools can't use their proceeds to buy DDOS attacks against competitors?)

Just a personal anecdote:

I have a patent for revolutionary new technology, one that has long been dismissed as impossible. The estimated value of that patent is in (tens) of millions of dollars. Problem is, no one really knows or understands it, so we've been having a very difficult time trying to find a buyer.
My other option is to just give it away to my university's research department, in exchange for me working with them, developing a full scale system, and making millions as either a consultant or a manager of the business based on that tech (path I'll be likely pursuing). Problem is, since it's my family pattent, everyone in my family would instead prefer I sell it and split the money. Selling still sucks, more so in this economy.
So, my options are rely on IP laws, hope the estimated value is correct, and keep trying to sell it to wealthy tech companies, likely getting nowhere, and making a profit of $0, or screw the IP laws, develop the technology myself, and make money from my own work and from providing intellect as a service (consulting/management), which will likely pay out more, since even if the patent tech descriptions are easily copyable, they're not exactly easy to understand.

That reminds me, a lot of bands make way more money from their service of playing their own music live (concerts) than from CD sales...

They can come up with their own ways of getting compensation without IP laws (like cotton farming slave owners had to)



They can come up with their own ways of getting respect without IP laws, examples of which were provided.



Because the number creators can come up with their own ways of getting respect and compensation without IP laws, even if their work is freely duplicated.

A media is what the idea is put on. Paper, plastic, hard drive. The idea is what words should describe a setting, what pattern the notes should go in, how the computer code should execute. We protect some ideas with copyrights and patents, and ignore others. That seems rather arbitrary. Why would my recipe, or my restaurant design, or my new business practice not be protected if I spent time thinking it up and creating it, and may also depend on it for profits?

Conversely, how come some ideas are not protected by specific IP laws, and yet the people who came up with them can still profit? If your assertion is true, then those ideas should be easily copy able, and their ownwrs shouldn't be able to make any money?

Also, 104 pages.

So, you are for protecting all ideas with IP lllaws, or just some ideas?

We don't have a single large mining pool, despite strong incentives to consolitate. Why can't police forces and courts follow the same trends, with no one wanting to give a single entity 50%+ of control?

Books, movies, and music, and all intellectual property, are essentially ideas, put down on some storage medium. So why are some ideas, like stories, get to have IP protections, but many others, like business practices, do not?

Ok, so, let's say I am a business owner running a fast food restaurant. My restaurant is a typical fast food joint run just like any other. Some week ago, I realize an ingeniuous way in which I can improve my business productivity and profits by changing how I am managing and compensating my employees, and the positions they are in while assembling burgers. This takes some time thinking the idea out, and then some time implementing it. As a result, my restaurant profits increase, and my business becomes much more profitable than other standard fast food joints.

Is the way my employees are positioned, or the way I now compensate them, something I can copyright, or is it even intellectual property? Like with books and music, this is something I spent time thinking about and creating entirely out of my mind in hopes to get compensated for it. So, it certainly fits your IP mold, but what kind of recource should I have if the fast food joint across the street sees the way I'm doing things and starts doing the same thing (i.e. if they steal my business management practices)?

Ok, so i read that Library of Babel thing... Not sure how it's relevant to protecting copyright.

It was just under 500,000 BTC at the time. No big deal.

2^43,486,543,900,000,000,000  +  1

My number is bigger.

Not "still," the bandwidth limits here in US is a new thing, just one or two years old. Our web and cell providers didn't used to have those...

I now keep my wallet closed most of the time because of Comcast's 250gig monthly limit. Bitcoin app alone can sometimes use up 7gigs in one day sharing the blockchain. Beginning of the month I try to keep it open more.