[pp.int.general] software patents

[Brian McNeil]

On Sun, 2009-12-20 at 02:32 +0000, Philip Hunt wrote:
> 2009/12/20 Andrew Norton <ktetch at gmail.com>:
> > On 12/19/2009 8:49 PM, Philip Hunt wrote:
> >> 2009/12/18 Valentin Villenave <v.villenave at gmail.com>:
> >>>
> >>> The "reject *all* patents NOW immediately immediately or else it
> >>> means you're not a responsible citizen/not a legit Pirate" approach,
> >>> while ethically valid, might not be the most efficient one on a
> >>> long-term perspective. Can we agree on that?
> >>
> >> That's certainly my point of view. It's a lot easy to convince people
> >> that there are flaws in the patent system that must be fixed, than to
> >> convince them to abolish the whole thing in its entirely, which makes
> >> us seem extreme to uninformed people.
> >
> > I'm still not convinced that 'kill all patents' is even the right
> > end-game.
> 
> Nor am I.

If you just start by killing software patents, and those for "business
methods", most people would be quite happy.

For software I think the perfect example is MP3. It'd be interesting to
have a world map showing where that patent is in force, and countries
where, if you buy an MP3 player, you pay a license fee even though not
required to. That's just a patent for a mathematical formulae.

Business methods? Call me cynical, but they're just an excuse to run
expensive seminars and training courses on some dimbulb's idea of how to
run any business. If nothing else, do away with them because they
contribute to climate change. ;-)



-- 
Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil at wikinewsie.org>
Wikinewsie.org
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