[LINK] Is it unethical to infringe a patent?

[Kim Holburn]

On 2006 Aug 18, at 11:49 AM, Geoff Ramadan wrote:
> Kim Holburn wrote:
>> On 2006 Aug 17, at 12:06 PM, Brendan Scott wrote:
>>> Just an open question really.  Assuming that patents are a form   
>>> of property:
>>>
>>> (a) would it be unethical to infringe a patent?  (eg: exercise a  
>>> patent without the permission of the patent holder)
>> Unethical?  Very tricky.  Depends on your ethics doesn't it?  If  
>> you have the ethics of a modern company then no, nothing much is  
>> unethical because companies aren't people and have no ethics.
>
> Surely companies are run by people, decisions are made by people  
> (on behalf of a company) therefore the ethics of the company relate  
> directly to the ethics of the people running the company.

Well, related but maybe not directly.

> However, this doesn't stop People hiding behind the facade of a  
> company.

And it doesn't stop a decision by one person being altered by another  
in such a way as to change the ethics of the decision of the first  
person.

Also the basis on which company decisions are made, in most cases is  
profit for the shareholders.  That is no basis for ethics, well,  
unless maybe you have some very long-sighted executives.

Hmmm... is ethics about the big picture?  (Sorry, just thinking aloud.)

Kim


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