I must somewhat disagree with you. I am against software patents. The reason is that they stop others from implementing "work alike" products. Imagine if the first person who wrote a job scheduler had patented it. No other job schedulers could have been written as they most likely would have violated at least portions of the patent.
I am for software copyrights. That means that if I write a job scheduler, somebody else could not acquire (somehow) the source and do with it what they want. If software were not copyrightable, then it would need to remain a "trade secret" if it were to be used to recoup the author's time and effort to write it. That means "no sharing" at all except for public domain type software. So, IMO, without software copyrights, there would only be two types of software: (1) public domain which anybody could use for any purpose or (2) trade secret / proprietary which nobody other than the developing author could see. Again, I don't mind "work alike" software. But I really dislike thieves (those who would take and never give back). Yes, I like the GPL. But I am not against other licenses such a BSD or even "public domain". I just think that it would be the author's right to say, without the necessity of locking the source away from prying eyes due to fear of software thieves (and that is what I consider copyright violators). Just my personal take on it. Is it Friday already? -- John McKown Senior Systems Programmer HealthMarkets Keeping the Promise of Affordable Coverage Administrative Services Group Information Technology The information contained in this e-mail message may be privileged and/or confidential. It is for intended addressee(s) only. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, reproduction, distribution or other use of this communication is strictly prohibited and could, in certain circumstances, be a criminal offense. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply and delete this message without copying or disclosing it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
