Patents

[Francois-Rene Rideau]

Dear Bastiat fans,

since I'm in a shameless plug posting mood, I'd like to draw your attention
to my article:  "Patents are an economic absurdity"
	http://fare.tunes.org/articles/patents.html

It's not that much Bastiat-related, except that I make a few references
to Bastiat. However, the way I interpret Bastiat's chapter X of the Economic
Harmonies, "Competition", it is an argument against patents, which is
the incarnation of protectionism in the domain of industrial processes.
Bastiat does not even use the word "patent" (what was the state of the
french legislation on patents at that time?), but the concept seems clear
to me. Don't you share my interpretation?

In the end, my page includes a list of pointers to other articles and
sites about patents; if you're interested in the subject but do not like
my writing, you may skip to this list, as it contains really good stuff.
I'll be expanding it as I receive more addresses to point to.

I hope I'll meet at least some of you at the Bastiat'2001 conference.

Yours freely,

[ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ]
[  TUNES project for a Free Reflective Computing System  | http://tunes.org  ]
Pray: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of
a single petitioner confessedly unworthy. -- Ambrose Bierce