[Stoves] Intellectual property was... Smoke-free biomass pellet fueled stove

[Darren]

Hello Stovers,

This topic touches on a subject that is fairly close to my heart.

I've been reading a lot about property both intellectual and otherwise 
and examining the effects that the dominant understanding of property 
(on a global scale) and implementation of property rights effects our 
economies and societies.

I've found commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons particularly 
interesting.  A way, I think of standing back and examining our 
understandings of property and the implications of that understanding.

I became interested in 'open source' development and the way this 
related to intellectual property (IP)  and technological developments 
when I was working with biofuels some years ago.  I decided to 
'open-source' my research.  It is now available at 
http://www.appropedia.org/Biofuel

Related to stoves I noticed that the Open Source Ecology project has 
recently open sourced their simple design for a stove. (I've been 
meaning to post something here since I notice this a few weeks back)

http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Modular_Stove_Fabrication_Procedure

The open source ecology project is very interesting and I would 
encourage people to have a good look at it, and what it has achieved to 
date.

I appreciate that designers need to eat and that without IP other ways 
have to be found to put food on the table.  Various open source 
projects, both software and hardware are demonstrating how this can be 
done and exploring new paths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_hardware

The real strength of open source development is the amazing speed at 
which technologies can be improved when ideas are not tied by patents.  
Its interesting to look at the thoughts behind the concept of patents 
and the actual effects that the use of patents has.

If you like such things I found this podcast series provided an 
illuminating exploration of patents and intellectual property.

http://bollier.org/podcasts

Best

Darren