John Negroponte Quotes
… countries that are behind in their industrial and scientific development are tempted at times to steal those technologies from other countries.
This has been true for a long time. The United States in its colonial days and its early days of independence stole huge amounts, especially from England. The Lowells stealing the technology and machines for weaving cloth from English companies is one dramatic example. Another is the fact that we did not recognize the copyright laws until the middle of the 19th century. American publishers, including Benjamin Franklin, stole most of the material they published. Thomas Jefferson was a foe of government protection of intellectual property—{605105}.
John Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence, Video: Cybersecurity With John Negroponte, http://foreignaffairs.com/video
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Industrial spying and trade secret thefts are very common in the South Korean business culture. Bribery of competitor’s employees is common. In the pre WWII period of Japanese control, the Japanese had a policy of keeping Korea technically backward to produce food cheaply and trade the food to Japan and buy manufactured goods from Japan—a classic colonial strategy. Japanese engineers and other technicians would go to Korea set up facilities but never share their knowledge with the Koreans. If technicians were needed, they would have to come from Japan. None the less there is a cultural blindness and Korean firms will commonly steal technology from anyone—partners or others. The South Korean Governments had looked at this with a blind eye. Many Koreans believe that because of past history the only way that they can survive on world competition is to continue to pilfer technology. However, modern South Korea has excellent technicians and scientists in almost all fields and making the cultural shift to a standard that is more consonant with the majority of the industrial democracies is the great challenge.
What is ironic about this fact is that 1000 years ago, the Muslim Middle East was scientifically and mathematically far in advance of Europe. However, after about 1100 AD, the Muslim religion began to lose its intellectual tolerance and cultural appreciation for science and innovation to the point where innovation of any kind was regarded as heresy, and the logic and empiricism that was present in early Islam disappeared, and there has been little scientific innovation and progress in traditional Arab Islamic nations ever since.
One major purpose of the patent system is to get inventors to disclose their inventions and explain how they work and in exchange they get a temporary monopoly to profit from the invention. That is why all patents are available to the public so that science can advance if all other see how something was done. Despite the Douglas View, gadgets have been patented if they had some novel element to their functioning.
- Born: July 21, 1939
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Diplomat
John Dimitri Negroponte is an American diplomat. He is currently a James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He is a former J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of International Affairs at the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. Prior to this appointment, he served as a research fellow and lecturer in international affairs at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, United States Deputy Secretary of State (2007–2009), and the first ever Director of National Intelligence (2005–2007).
