Thanks for everything, Toady.
You and ThreeToe deserve an amazing amount of credit for all the fresh air you breathe onto the gaming industry-and internet itself (specifically Forum management)-on a daily basis.
As far as patents go, I might as well chime in.
If it were up to me, I'd keep the 20 year patents for products other than prescription drugs, and make a special exception for drugs that gave the pharmaceutical company control over their production for 10 "testing" years. These would be 10 years following the initial FDA approval, but the companies would, in this period of time, be required to continue responsible testing of the drug, as well as clearly state the drug was "under testing", and to provide free and full information disclosure about the drug in question, both from their sources, and independent sources. They'd also be required to provide the drug freely to hospitals and clinics, for use on-premises (so they could still sell prescriptions for at-home use), and to track the health of those it was issued to (the people the drug was issued to would be required to disclose their medical history--for the purpose of tracking the drug, only.).
After the 10 years expired, the company would have 10 years to sell their product, under patent.
I'd also have a special government program that would be set up to reimburse pharmaceutical companies for finding cures to rare chronic diseases, which would be based on the number of people in the U.S. that had the disease, and a ruling about the severity of the disease.
The government could match, tax-free, an amount of money raised by the people with the diseases in question, if there were less than, say, .05% of the population with the disease in the U.S., and the total amount the government matched for the diseases that year, would be offered as a tax-free grant to anyone that managed to invent a cure for one of the qualified diseases, in that year.
Curing several diseases in a single year would also be matched by the government, so the money raised could be doubled, tripled, etc.
Partial treatments would also qualify-including treatments other than drugs-but they would be overseen by a committee, who would determine whether they were suitably efficacious to earn an award.
Additionally, whoever came up with the cure would be granted the money specifically raised for that particular disease, again tax free, so they'd earn a nice chunk of cash.
The money raised would ofcourse be tax-deductable.
In addition, depending on the ruling as to the severity, and rarity, of the disease, and how effective the cure (or treatment) in question was, the normal patent on the manufacture of that cure/treatment could be extended by a number of years.
A series of major awards and prizes specifically for this sort of activity wouldn't hurt anything, either.
Copyrights, I believe, should last for a total of 25 years, with the option to renew them after that point, as long as the originator of the idea is alive. Additionally, I'd have a Public Royalties program that would ensure anyone making money off of someone else's idea would be required to pay 10% of the gross profit to that person's estate, for a period of 25 years after that person's death (or after they fail to renew the original copyright).
That way, anyone could use the idea, after the initial 25 years (or atleast after that person's death), but for atleast 50 years, they'd have to pay to use it, if they're making any sort of profit from it.
As far as graphics are concerned, I concur with DeadlyLintRoller.
Dungeons of Daggorath came out in 1982--in glorious wire-frame--and it still looks great to me.
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Topic: Thank you again, Toady One! (Read 3856 times)