OLPC, or why you can't copyright ideas

I have to agree with Mike Masnick's contention that Nicholas Negroponte is way off base in arguing that Intel and Microsoft are to blame for the One Laptop Per Child's problems. Whatever Microsoft's problems, a fervent desire to compete is not one of them. Ditto for Intel. According to Masnick:

While the idea behind creating a super cheap, super durable useful computer for children in developing nations is good, Negroponte has always approached the idea as one where only he should be allowed to see that vision through. When other companies decided it might be a good idea and wanted to target that market themselves, Negroponte flipped out and started attacking them for trying to undermine his project.

Absolutely. While I think there are great reasons for OLPC to stick it out with open source, if Negroponte can't see his way to do so competitively with open source, then neither he nor open source deserve to be at the bargaining table.

Negroponte has suggested that he's a visionary, not an operator. In OLPC, he has proved both. He should be grateful that the vision endures, even if his imprint on its execution does not. Perhaps Intel or someone else will pick up the open-source ball where Negroponte dropped it. I, for one, hope so.

But Microsoft and Intel (or the open-source community, another Negroponte scapegoat) aren't to blame for OLPC's problems. Negroponte is.

This is why U.S. copyright law doesn't allow authors to copyright ideas. An idea isn't a work of authorship. It's just the start of potential authorship, and in most cases it's by far the easiest part. Ideas are easy. Execution is hard.

[all-usernames-in-use]

Say what you will about Negroponte, but when Intel started the "OLPC News" website and regularly used it as a sockpuppet to bash the OLPC, it started to become clear that Intel were trying to compete in ways that fundamentally opposed the free market.

The OLPC received a vast amount of subversive pressure from companies that didn't want to be forced to compete, including Microsoft.

[CyR00k]

What about the fact that Microsoft was originally a part of the OLPC group and after roughly 6 months decided that they wanted to go off on their own, taking with them all of the insider knowledge from the OLPC project? Not to mention the fact that Microsoft decided to negotiate contracts with the people that Negroponte had already contacted and been working with?

[benjaminstraight]

See a lawyer.