You have it backwards... The reason that fashion can't be patented is not because it's useless stuff. Quite the opposite in fact! iI was deemed that clothing is too essential and utilitarian to risk the possibility of e.g. someone patenting the concept of a jumper.
Patents largely exist to protect useless stuff. Things that might improve quality of life, or satisfy materialistic urges, or allow us to make more profit, but never the essentials! In this sense, some basic ideas in software and mathematics have reached the point where it's unthinkable for someone to come along a charge patent royalties for what is essentially a way of life now. The economy simply wouldn't stand for it. Software is now too deeply ingrained in our society and patents are too much of a risk to that for the status quo to be allowed to continue. Granted, it's conceivable that we could live without jumpers, or without computer software, so they're not quite essential in the same way as air and water; but the fallout from such a dramatic shift is unthinkable, so these things really must be considered essential, and therefore unpatentable. On 5 September 2010 09:44, Fabrizio Giudici <[email protected]>wrote: > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > As you know, I'm mid way here. I think that the current patent system > is ridiculous, but patents are needed, as said Cedric. So, we need > just to bring them to a reasonable point: a) don't patent obvious > stuff and b) set a shorter time before they expire. In my opinion, > it's a matter of equilibrium: the innovation corporate must have some > time to gets most of the revenues from the idea that needed big money. > I don't see a qualitative difference between software and other > thigns; I see a quantitative difference, in that the software world > evolves quicker, and thus it needs shorter expiration times. > > That's why while I strive for a reform, I believe that the mass > movement about totally preventing software patents from occurring is > bad too. > > For what concerns fashion... well, it's fashion. It's useless stuff, > where only marketing matters. Often, the only difference between an > original product and the chinese copy is that the latter misses the > badge, but more and more often the materials used to create the > "original" product are nevertheless made in China (of course, there > are also poor quality copies). A fashion product is supposedly made of > two things: it's aesthetically appealing and it should be made with > quality materials. For the former thing, everybody should just > evaluate with his/her personal taste, not leaving morons writing for > newspaper in Milan, Paris or New York to decide what's beautiful and > what's not. For the latter thing, not necessarily a branded product is > better than another. I really hope that our technology products are > very different (*)! So I wouldn't call a comparison with the fashion > industry. > > (*) Note that similar arguments could be done e.g. for the Oracle DB > and Postgres, but in our business there's the integration and > consultancy thing, that doesn't matter for fashion. > > - -- > Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager > Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere." > java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici - www.tidalwave.it/people > [email protected] > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.14 (Darwin) > Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ > > iEYEARECAAYFAkyDWHoACgkQeDweFqgUGxdR6QCfWNdwRo5SaOEaE4gupeYqliwC > TNQAn3orSergqumJwFbPqNZPHxT7DBAA > =uSnb > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > -- > 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]<javaposse%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > > -- Kevin Wright mail / gtalk / msn : [email protected] pulse / skype: kev.lee.wright twitter: @thecoda -- 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.
