• DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Looks like he inherited it. Seems reasonable enough. Like hitting the lottery, you’re not the hypocrite unless you start reinvesting.

      In fact, the article specifically notes he received the money in lieu of stock, aka, deinvestment.

      In theory you could also do it with self publishing these days. Possibly a really juicy patent or number of patents, if you just license it for production, though that’s getting pretty iffy.

        • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          Eh, I don’t know, at least in regards to production. Why the hell should some corporate goons get to profit from your ideas? They sure as hell aren’t going to pass the savings to the actual workers.

          • wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            8 months ago

            I mean in the optics of worker owned production that doesn’t hold up… and even in the world as it is currently there’s a ton of domains, like public safety, healthcare, etc for which it’s incredibly toxic for society.

            • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              8 months ago

              I don’t mind the concept as a goal to work towards, after the ⚒️ revolution ⚒️, but I just don’t consider it a viable option to empower the people in a capitalist reality.

              A lot of the problems we currently have have less to do with IP protection and more to do with the physical means of production.

              If only someone had warned us about that.

              • wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                8 months ago

                I’ll give two very current examples:

                https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-world-loses-under-bill-gates-vaccine-colonialism/

                Bill Gates convinced the university to sell the IP of a publically funded vaccine to astra zeneca instead of making it public domain. India would have been more than capable of producing hundreds of millions, if not billions, of doses otherwise.

                Case study two: Saw Stop. The guy who invented it has been holding the patent for over two decades. Table saws are one of leading causes of amputations in the US. Now they are lobbying the safety commission to make them mandatory. But they won’t release the patent. They’ve also sued Bosh for coming up with a similar technology. So not only have they contributed to countless amputations in the past two decades, they are now actively working on making a tool more expensive for working people.

    • wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Honestly, you’d be surprised. There’s always exceptions confirming the rule. But whether this guy is or not, that is yet to be proven.

  • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    8 months ago

    It seems like people are downvoting a headline as they scroll. It was a very interesting article, not sure how I feel about this guy but it is an interesting piece.