Daniel Gibson wrote: > Am 26.10.2011 23:52, schrieb Steven Schveighoffer: >> On Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:51:11 -0400, Daniel Gibson >> <metalcae...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Am 26.10.2011 23:38, schrieb Steven Schveighoffer: >>>> >>>> But it's much harder to reverse engineer how someone built a >>>> machine than it is to reverse engineer how software is built. >>> >>> Really? >>> I guess it depends on the machine but I imagine it isn't so hard to >>> dismantle a machine to find out how it works? (But I have no >>> experience with that, it's just a guess) >>> Reverse Engineering software can be pretty hard if the author made >>> it deliberately hard, like Skype. >> >> If you have no idea how a material is built, such as a new kind of >> glass, you have to guess. > > Ok, for materials it's probably hard, but there is a possibility of > chemical analysis and stuff like that. > But I guess for things like e.g. car engines it may be easier (besides > maybe special/new materials used).
It's not worth it. If a company is relying on a competitor's engines to develop it's own, it's effectively out of the business of engineering (it's just then a manufacturer of other company's products perhaps). Competitive analyis is fine, but a company cannot be in the engine business without the required engineering prowess required for that. > Anyway, I'm strongly opposed to software patents. > My main concerns are that > 1. Often trivial ideas are patented > 2. Even for non-trivial stuff it isn't unlikely that some expert > reinvents the same algorithm/whatever for the same problem. YES, YES, YES!!! > One Example is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_volume#Depth_fail > 3. Because of this you can never be sure you're not violating patents > when developing software without knowingly copying ideas of other > people. Checking this is impossible even for big companies with > specialized lawyers, let alone smaller companies or hobby developers. Sounds like a concept for a new book: "Modern Crimes Against Humanity", or "Crimes Against Humanity in the Age of Technology".
