On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 10:06 PM, Josh Berry <[email protected]> wrote:
> 2010/9/4 Cédric Beust ♔ <[email protected]> > >> This might sound like an obvious plus, but you need to realize that in the >> absence of software patents, maybe these companies would simply never have >> come up with these ideas in the first place because they wouldn't see the >> point in investing millions of dollars in researching and developing >> innovative ideas that will be copied at no costs by competitors as soon as >> they become public. >> > > Do you truly fear that would happen? > It's certainly happening in the medical and drug sectors and other areas where companies need to invest years and millions of dollars in order to create any product at all. It's not hard to imagine that the same problem extends to software. > I'm not taking any side here and I have very often been on the receiving >> end of stifling software patents, but I think the two sides of this debate >> are often glossed over by eager software developers who don't bother >> thinking this problem through. >> > > Not taking a side and accusing those who are on a side of "not bothering to > think a position through" seems... rude. > I don't see any contradiction. People that are against software patents might be right, but most of the time, they just don't see that the situation is not as black and white as "software patents are evil and should be abolished". > If you have actual evidence showing people would not have gone after a > market were there not patent protection, then present it. > I've seen this happen at pretty much every single company I have worked at in the US. The spectrum ranges from "We need to implement this slightly differently because of patent XXX", to "We need to redesign the UI completely" to "We need to remove this functionality". -- Cédric -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
