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Comment by jasonlbaptiste | Hacker News Reader

throw this guy in jail for the rest of his life and be done with it. no different than madoff. worse actually. he not only took money, but he also "took" knowledge + intellectual property.

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That's pretty harsh and unobjective! I haven't read anything to suggest patent trolling is equivalent to a Ponzi-scheme. Furthermore, give the man benefit of the doubt. For a person who did a Post Doc with Stephen Hawking, it's difficult to believe he is absolutely lacking in ethics and morals.

According to the article, I.V. demands cash "for a combined promise not to sue over those patents and (here's the sneaky bit) a bit of a pyramid scheme, where those in early supposedly get a cut of later deals."

I'm not sure that being smart and accomplished in science is a reliable predictor of ethics or morals.

yup, that's what i based it off of (being objective). It's also similar enough that he takes money from the big companies THEN goes back to sue them. I don't think it's being harsh either. I'm absolutely against throwing people in jail for dumb things that don't deserve the time. If we don't do something about patent trolls like this, things will continue to get even worse.

Being smart (studying under hawking) != having good morals.

He sounds more like someone with a "If I can do it under the law, it must be perfectly moral to do it" sort of personality.

Huh? When did being smart have anything to do with being moral?

I meant that if he was given the opportunity to work under Stephen Hawking, his research must have been impeccable and unquestionable. I think there is a good correlation between being ethical and being a good researcher.

That Torquemada believed fervently was little comfort to those burned. He probably has convinced himself that the more effectively he grubs money the better the economy goes; why, doesn't he see every day billion-dollar innovations like a laser targeting mosquitoes?

Your thinking so does not make it so.

I fail to see any reason why being a skilled researcher has any relevance to question of one's ethics. There's no logical connection between the two. A trivial case in point: according to social science research, conservatives -- under-represented in academia and thus less likely than liberals to be "skilled researchers" -- give more charity than liberals.

After controlling for income and excluding religious contributions (tithe)?

For a person who did a Post Doc with Stephen Hawking, it's difficult to believe he is absolutely lacking in ethics and morals.

I can guarantee you that the selection process for Physics PhDs has nothing to do with ethics, morals, emotional stability, social skills, or anything else relating to character.

It might be worse. Ponzi schemes just steal what we have. Patent trolling steals what we're going to have. It's like killing the cow to get a glass of milk.

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