On Fri, November 17, 2006 8:56 pm, kelsey hudson wrote: > Andrew Lentvorski wrote: > >> Personally, I think that *all* patents need to disappear. The number of >> small inventors who actually benefit from patents is minimal while the >> big companies get to engage in sanctioned extortion. > > More true words are seldom spoken, sir. >
All patents or all SW patents? IMHO patent and copyright have been perverted into exactly what the framers wanted to avoid -- a charter from the "king" allowing a mignion to reap undeserved profits from the force of law. Ever wonder why such an issue as patent/copyright is in the Constitution in the first place? Because it was one of the abuses of the royal government. (See Ghandi's walk to the sea to take a pinch of salt.) But without some protection, the corporations would simply steal every idea, book and song outright, and the actual creative person would be, at best, an economic wage slave. HOWEVER ... SW is an expression of logic and mathematics. Copyright, sure. Patent? I don't think so. Remember the distinction that copyright applies to the work as a whole and patent to the central ideas. So you can copyright a detective story and its characters, but you can't patent detective stories or the hard-boiled detective. There's a cheap $.02. -- Lan Barnes Tcl/Tk Enthusiast SCM Analyst Linux Guy Biodiesel Brewer -- KPLUG-List@kernel-panic.org http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
