patents were meant to protect small time inventors, not corporations. id love to see it collapse in on itself, much like shotgun litigation failed the music industry.
it actually occurred to me the other day that piracy is somewhat misdefined. it used to be back in the 80s that piracy was done by criminal organizations, making counterfeit copies of movies, music, and games and selling them as new. this is why old vhs movies have the fbi warning at the beginning. nobody really gave a **** that people were copying tapes, recording radio and tv broadcasts, and things like that until organized crime started doing it. software piracy in china back in the 90s, was this kind of piracy, people were still buying software, it was just from organized crime instead of an authorized distributor. what people are doing when they download music/movies/games/software is technically not piracy, since profits are not being made by unauthorized parties. the thing being pirated was profits, not media. somehow in the last couple of decades non-profit piracy by individuals got lumped in on top of the old definition of piracy and was considered an equal crime.
but back on topic, when people start pirating plans for physical objects, and start mass producing these things on their cnc equipment. that wont be noticed, however when a few of those people try to sell what they are producing, thats when the **** will hit the fan. no one wants to see other people making their money.
