There are active working forces in our day to day life that have enabled a tentative equilibrium in today's day to day society. It is common place to grumble about veiwed social injustices without reasoning or looking at the underlying causes without enough situational analysis. My most recent feud or beef was with the patent system. I fully support the cause of the P2P cause, it is unimaginable that media cost has bludgeoned to such heights that the average poor to middle class family cannot afford two hours worth of entertainment per week. They say that the producers and cinemas have similar financial stresses too but that is horse crap, even with the recession at its worst most report that monetary hiccups in the film industry was negligible prompting forums and journalist to comment that the film industry was “ at worse, recession-resistant and, more optimistically and historically, has actually been recession-proof.”
However there is also the flip side of the patent system where it regulates effectively. I had recently bought After market control arms for my acura which was a big deal for me. These front upper control arms for my Acura integra would offer quick change camber capabilities which are approximately worth 0.05 to 0.15 g on a lateral skid pad and worth about 3-5 seconds on a well suited 2 minute track. However due to stupidity and lack of money, I decided not to buy a brand name item and instead buy a cheaper imitation item that offered similar capabilities. Taking great pain and effort, I installed these arms on my car, I had to borrow jacks and working space from a friend, skip classes in school and deal with many other quibbles during installation but I finally did it. However the problems that cropped up after wards were so tiresome and seemingly unsolvable that I got fed up and six months from purchase I had to remove and discard the arms. First there was not ample suspension play room, this was due to incompatibility with lowered cars and the inferior design of said product i.e. placement of quick change camber adjustment screws was in the wrong place, so I had to increase the front ride height at the expense of my struts. Second there was irreparable damage to my drive shafts during installation process which caused me to shell out a considerable amount of cash for replacement of said shafts, all due to no installation procedures from control arm manufacturer. Third the product itself with its flawed design was not built up to its own flawed specification. The screws were built out of a very malleable metal that did not have needed holding capabilities required to function consistently as such when I set the camber required for daily activities the screws holding the product slid and setting was lost in about 2 days time.
These problems had been solved by the brand name manufacturer's product due to regulations in patent system that made manufacturer accountable for his or her product. Sadly the product I bought was from a Taiwanese imitation manufacturer who used a loophole that did not require following the actions required by the regulation body for regular car parts manufacturers. These imitation companies are forcing real brand name companies with quality products like TRUST a.k.a Greddy (
which went into bankruptcy this year) and HKS(
which in 2009 is still going at a loss) out of business with their cheap imitation products.
As such the real situation is much more complex than imagined, Of course one could say that maybe one of these categories is wrong and the other is right, but putting moral opinion into solving this calamity is hard. If we look at the situation analytically, The bad guy in the each situation is still the good guy in some way, I am sure in Hollywood there are some Movies that went bust and/or some people out of jobs because of torrenting and I am also sure that this number is increasing almost exponentially due to growth of the P2P scene. It is also valid to assume in concern with performance market that if there were no imitation products, the brand item products prices would be much more higher due to absence of competition, I bet if the Patent law was patched right to disallow foreign cheap competition right now the prices of aftermarket performance parts would most likely rise, even quadruple like in the 1990's when the sports car imports from japan first became popular.
I am sure the Patent law system will likely continue evolving and engineering the market so that entertainment industry products can be cheaper for consumers and the market for after market performance parts will be more promising for the earnest businesses and consumers. However the girth of this essay is to point out the unapparent complexity of the situation in today's day to day living, and to advocate analytical steps into each and every cause or trend a person is associated or allies with.
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