Patents and copyrights have different objectives. You can't really lump both into a single argument. Patents serve to expose trade secrets so that they aren't lost if an inventor dies or a company goes belly-up and also releasing new ideas into the wild after some set time, while copyrights serve to deter, well, the ability to copy a given work.
I'm on the fence when it comes to software patents. I certainly see an abuse of patents right now. Perhaps we should shorten software patents to something that works better with how fast the software industry moves, such as three years. There is also the problem that non-innovative ideas are being patented, which seems to indicate that perhaps software patents are indeed a bad idea. (But I certainly support the idea of a patent in most other realms.) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Edmund Cramp" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <General at brlug.net> Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2005 5:57 AM Subject: Re: [brlug-general] to release or not to release,intellectual retentiveness. > Dustin Puryear wrote: > >>I'm a day late and a dollar short to this discussion, >> > Me too, but there's an interesting discussion in the International > Herald Tribune: > > http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/07/opinion/edsmiers.php > > "...These industries decide whether the materials they have laid their > hands on may be used by others - and, if they allow it, under what > conditions and for what price. European and American legislation extends > them that privilege for a window of no less than 70 years after the > passing of the original author. The consequences? The privatization of > an ever-increasing share of our cultural expressions, because this is > precisely what copyright does. Our democratic right to freedom of > cultural and artistic exchange is slowly but surely being taken away > from us..." > > This is principally about artistic copyrights but I believe that the > basic issues that are currently to the forefront of the media > discussions simply illustrate all that's broken with the patent industry. > > Edmund Cramp > > -- > The day may come when we'll reject the money of the rich as tainted, > but it hadn't come when I left Tammany Hall at 11:25 today. > ~ George Washington Plunkett, 1905 > > > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > General at brlug.net > http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net > >
