The New Yorker: James Surowiecki on the Permission Problem

credit: etech05 James Surowiecki makes the argument that the opportunity costs of intellectual property rows and strict licence regimes are hard to define yet have a huge impact on the productive capacity of an economy. “The effects of overuse are generally unmistakable—you can’t miss the empty nets of fishing boats working overfished oceans, or the scrub that covers an overgrazed field. But the effects of underuse created by too much ownership are often invisible. They’re mainly things that don’t happen: inventions that don’t get made, useful drugs that never get to market.” He argues that a balance has to be struck if we are to foster innovation. For a project to get off the ground, quite literally in the case of the 19th century US airline industry, then deals have to be done. Personally, I see this as a key role for the... [read full story]