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by natechols 1622 days ago
Patents are enforced by governments that have massive amounts of guns and can shut down any company that violates them. I promise you nobody in the tech industry respects patents because of any "social contract".
1 comments

Governments only have that power precisely because there is a social contract. Read the definition.
No. They also have guns. Only a very small minority of people must abide by that social contract to enforce it, and those people are likely all part of the enforcement.
In a police state maybe, but I wasn't talking about that. And even in a police state you need acceptance of the people.