Re: Extortion rights of rent collectors protected by the US Constitution?
- From: "ruetheday@xxxxxxxxxx" <ruetheday@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 07:18:24 -0800 (PST)
On Feb 14, 7:09 am, "sinister" <sinis...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Lawmakers Move to Grant Banks Immunity Against Patent Lawsuit"
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 14, 2008; Page A22
URL:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR200....
First two paragraphs:
"Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has sponsored an unusual provision at the
urging of the nation's banks granting them immunity against an active patent
lawsuit, potentially saving them billions of dollars.
"Adopted with little fanfare, the amendment would prevent a small Texas
company called DataTreasury from collecting damages from banks for
infringing on its patented method for digitally scanning, sending and
archiving checks. The patents were upheld last summer by the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office after they were challenged."
Key paragraph: "The federal government would have to pay $1 billion to
DataTreasury over 10 years as compensation for taking its property under the
amendment, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office."
I thought the government had the right to do things like compel patent
licensing, if it decided to do so. With that right, I would have thought
there'd be an accompanying right to set the fee that rent collecting
parasites were allowed to collect.
NB: Richard Epstein is a leading light in the movement to make
rent-collecting extortion a fundamental right. (He's not mentioned in the
article; that's just an aside.)
US Constitution
Article I, Section 8
"The Congress shall have Power...To promote the Progress of Science
and useful Arts, by securing for limited
Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective
Writings and Discoveries;"
The terms of IP law are at the discretion of Congress. Furthermore,
the Constitution makes it clear that such laws are only valid to the
extent that they "promote the progress of science and useful arts".
The notion that some small company (and I use the term loosely as many
of these companies are nothing more than a couple of lawyers and a PO
box who purchase IP rather than actually creating anything) can hold
the entire financial system and the federal government hostage with
their claims of IP rights is absurd. Screw them. I hope to see more
and more legislation of the type mentioned above that basically
invalidates patents that are impeding progress.
.
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