
Intellectual Ventures ramps up lobbying in face of new legislation - rosenjon
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/10/21/intellectual-ventures-lobbying-patent-lawsuits-patent-trolls/3145691/
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spiritplumber
I regret having lived, for a short time, within trebuchet range of these folks
and not doing anything with it.

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reginaldjcooper
A donation to the EFF might cheer you up :)

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shmerl
_> Intellectual Ventures spent $310,000 to influence federal policy from July
1 through Sept. 30, up from $165,000 the firm reported spending on lobbying
during the previous months, according to a report filed with the U.S. Senate._

What does this mean exactly, and how is this different from bribery and
corruption?

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rayiner
Paying a lobbying firm to push a particular policy is quite different than
bribing a public official. Lobbying isn't, by and large, an act of "hey here's
a $50 why don't you look the other way." It's: "hey, your staff doesn't have
time to write a bill so here's some proposed text." Or: "hey, here is this
study we commissioned showing that global warming is a sham, so you have
something to throw back at people who claim you're being unscientific."

Lobbying involves a ton of leg-work and that's not free.

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shmerl
Isn't it still undemocratic? Since anyone with bigger pockets can buy more
influence. If not bribery, it still looks like corruption.

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rayiner
A substantial amount of what people call "corruption" in American politics is
instead two cherished principles of American society being fundamentally at
odds as a result of our representative system. We want everyone to have an
equal say in government, but we also want people to be able to freely express
their political opinions.

Why is it wrong for an environmental group to be able to draft a proposed law
to give legislators something concrete to work with? Why is it wrong for an
industry organization, which usually knows way more about the specific
industry than the lay public, to educate legislators about their industry? Why
is it wrong for a rich person to buy media time to convince voters of his
views?

These activities aren't inherently wrong. They're not inherently corruption.
We might not like the consequences resulting from these activities. Often, we
just don't like the people engaging in these activities. But as long as
they're directed at convincing people (either voters or politicians), as
opposed to giving out personal benefits, these activities aren't corruption.

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shmerl
What can be wrong is someone's selfish interest affecting negatively everyone
else. I.e. acting not for the sake of making a useful law for the public, but
acting for the sake of making a useful law for someone's particular pocket at
the expense of the public. It's very clearly wrong, but how exactly this can
be prevented is a good question.

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lukifer
The thorny issue of lobbying vs. democracy shares a lot of overlap with the
realities of legal costs and the justice system. On the one hand, it's clearly
unjust that the party who can afford more legal fees has a strong advantage,
both in and out of the courtroom; on the other hand, it's also unjust to not
allow someone to choose their own legal counsel, and how they make their case.

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bronbron
Man, the worst part is that Intellectual Ventures Lab works on some really
cool stuff. Maybe a little impractical, but really cool and innovative
nonetheless.

I'd totally go work for them if they weren't backed by one of the worst
corporations on the planet.

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michael_h
Do they actually _work_ on really cool stuff though? As far as I can tell,
they think up something that could possibly exist and patent it without
actually making it, or if they do make it, they only do it halfway (aka not
doing the actual difficult parts).

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chris_va
So I went to the IV dog and pony show. There was maybe 1 project that was
actually interesting out of ~dozens. They don't have the technological
research base to actually finish a project in house, so I think they tend to
spin stuff out. Example (with dubious prospects):
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraPower](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraPower)

IV hasn't gone after the little guys yet, so I find the Lodsys-type guys a lot
scarier.

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jkestner
Isn't Lodsys strongly linked to IV? As in, they're playing the shell game?

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chris_va
From what I have read from other hacker news threads, there is no evidence of
that (and Lodsys apparently denies it).

Digging around, the only connection I could find was IV selling Lodsys some of
its patents. Not much evidence for an actually connection, much less shell
game.

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daveyoon
The sad thing is that they are capitalized by so many public and private
pension funds ... pension participants are unwittingly sapping a core engine
of growth.

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wheaties
They fear a weakening of the patent system. We fear a strengthening of it. Our
goals and fears are at odds. Our interests are misaligned. In a perfect world
this company would exist to invent and license new ideas. In our imperfect
world they exist to invent licenses for new ideas.

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shmerl
_> In a perfect world this company would exist to invent and license new
ideas. _

No, in a perfect world this company wouldn't exist at all, and its founders
would be jailed for racketeering. In our imperfect world these thugs claim
they are a "legitimate business".

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nimble
For some reason I read their name as "Intellectual Vampires."

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shmerl
More like Intellectual Vultures.

