Summaries
How Royalties Are Supposed to Work
Beta: OK. Some inventors would like to be attributed and get royalties from every business using their inventions. This seems to be fair and rewards creative work. Thus, it becomes more attractive for people to invent and present their inventions to the public. Have I said everything, Alpha?
Alpha: (shrugs) There is one more point. You cannot attribute every single idea you use. This is why I proposed to do it for a limited time, say ten years. After ten years of public use, an idea would become common knowledge and attribution would no longer be necessary. Then business use of the idea would not require attribution anymore, and you wouldn’t have to collect zillions of references.
Teacher: Very good, Alpha. We have all of your ideas summarized now, and it is your turn. Please summarize Beta’s ideas.
Alpha: I had to fix what Beta said about my ideas, anyway. I believe he can summarize his ideas better than me.
Teacher: I cannot insist although I am sure this exercise would be very helpful for our deliberations. If we all know that at the end of the day we will have to summarize each other’s ideas, we would pay more attention to what everyone says.
Alpha: I remember everything everyone said. I just do not feel like I want to repeat what Beta said.
Teacher: OK, anyone?
Beta: I can try.
Gamma: I can.
Teacher: Let us go with Gamma.
How Attribution Is Supposed to Work
Gamma: If an inventor shares his ideas freely, and anyone who uses them gives the inventor proper attribution, then he gets free publicity from all those people, and becomes famous and rich. He becomes even more credible if he refers others back to those who
