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Comment by anigbrowl | Hacker News Reader

Calling Myhrvold 'evil' and putting himself in the same context as Hitler is absurd. One is a businessman whose tactics you disapprove of and consider to be unethical, the other instigated the murder of millions of people, over and above the casualties of the numerous wars that he started.

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I agree the Hitler comparison is absurd, but I think the whole "I'm gonna patent this obvious concept, not do anything with it, and then sue everyone who comes up with the idea independently while actually making an attempt to solve the problem in practice" is sort of evil.

It's the unfortunate logical conclusion of our private property philosophy applied to intellectual capital. I'd like to see some sort of 'use it or lose it' clause enshrined at the core of property law, but obviously that approach could bring its own problems.

Well, with real property there are things like adverse possession [1]. This isn't exactly "use it or lose it", but it does contain the idea that if rights aren't exercised there may be implicit acquiescence to another's actions.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_possession

Something being legal does not make it any less immoral.

cabalamat didn't put Myhrvold in the same context as Hitler, you did. He made two distinct statements that you somehow connected.

1) I have not met Hitler but I know him to have been not a nice man

2) I believe Patent Trolling to be evil and therefore those that perpetrate it to also be evil.

Personally I cannot disagree with either statement. Excusing any evil practice as 'a businessman whose tactics you disapprove of and consider to be unethical' is also wrong in my opinion.

The world of business hides too many organisations (and therefore people) guilty of profound immorality. It has become an unfortunate part of our culture that we so often forgive them as 'just business'. Capitalism, as a whole, rarely scrapes above amoral.

The word 'evil' has an ancient meaning that doesn't only include mass murder and it certainly includes extortion.

cabalamat didn't put Myhrvold in the same context as Hitler

What? That's exactly what he did.

I don't think you understand what context means. Who brought Hitler into the conversation, and why?

The point of a comparison matters. "I didn't know Aaron Swartz personally, but I know enough of him to think he was a good guy." is making exactly same point.

Also, "One is a businessman whose tactics you disapprove of and consider to be unethical," the other was a politician whose tactics I disapprove of and consider to be unethical. Gotta love euphemisms that turn everything into nothing, and applying them selectively.

You seem to be saying that extorting millions of dollars from business competitors, even if legal, is on the same moral plane as murdering millions of people. The legality issue matters a bit, insofar as a potential competitor has notice that such business risks may occur, and can plan for them economically before entering the market, whereas people don't reasonably expect to be rounded up and sent off to concentration camps fitted with gas chambers as a matter of course. But the more important point is that I don't consider business dealings, however harsh or unethical, to be on the same moral plane as genocide.

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