Plutocrats are Greased, Americans are Fleeced

"Intellectual property" is nothing but an indefensible tax on information and technology, designed by aristocrats, enforced by plutocrats, and suffered by the masses.

There goes another perfectly good product, off the market. Not that Blackberry gets any sympathy from me. These people are probably prosecuting infringement cases against dozens of other companies as we speak. But, we the people are paying the price whenever an infringement case is brought and won by a patentholder.

We pay in fewer products and fewer options in the marketplace. I don't know the details of this particular case. But, now NTP is free to gouge RIM in royalty fees (which of course is really gouging us). Or, RIM will simply refuse to pay the licensing fee and NTP can gouge us directly when we're left with no alternative.

And to add insult to injury:

NTP has asked the trial judge in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to move ahead with the injunction. It has said an injunction would not affect BlackBerry products used by U.S. federal, state, or local governments.

RIM argued that [the court] should back away from any injunction for a number of reasons including an "exceptional public interest" in maintaining uninterrupted BlackBerry service for national security officials, among others.

So, the plutocrats get to keep their blackberries, the better to keep tabs on us. Meanwhile, we get to use what they allow us to use. From Cipro to Blackberry, the US government and its financiers are taking full advantage of their power to fleece us.