On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 19:16, Christopher Sawtell wrote: > On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 18:49, Lindsay wrote: > > It may come down to how corrupt officials are Nick and who offers the > > biggest 'back-hander." The hopes of seeing 'justice done' may be but a > > pipe-dream again. > > No, not in Europe, not just yet anyway. > The European Union has decided not to cast software patents into statute > law just yet. > > I have no real objection to a patent for a _really_ clever implementation > of a distinctly non-trivial algorithm, particularly if the software > controls a complex industrial process or similar, but storing a database > index pointer in a web cookie is pretty obvious and therefore doesn't > qualify imho. It's a very nebulous subject, and that's what makes it so > difficult and so interesting.
But when a Sun Vice-President makes the statement that software and hardware have become increasingly intertwined these days, and so software patents are a natural development from patenting the hardware (discussion in Groklaw some time late last year or this year) I'm brought back to what I know about CNC and CAM - that all objects are in CNC and CAM terms, merely toolpaths. Excerpt from "Computer Numeric Control Programming", ch 5, sec. 5.1, "Calculating Cutter Centerline Distances", pg 75: N0020 G92 X0 Y0 Z0 Set control display to 0, corrresponding to machine '0' N0030 S800 M03 Spindle speed 800, spindle start clockwise N0040 G00 X4.75 Y5.95 "Rapid" to part in X and Y N0050 Z-6.4 Rapid to part in Z, leaving 0.1 inch clearance N0060 G01 Z-1.15 F3.0 Feed 0.05 inch past part at 3 ipm N0070 X0.3 M08 Feed to point 1, coolant on Excerpt from "SPICE: A Guide to Circuit Simulation and Analysis Using PSPICE", ch 2, Sec. 2.6, "Kirchhoff's Network Laws", pg 12: Resistor bridge VIN 1 0 10 R1 1 2 2 R2 1 3 1 R3 2 0 1 R4 3 0 2 R5 3 2 2 .end And there are tools that compile netlists - what SPICE works with - to toolpaths, and there are tools that compile programming language statements to netlists, (SystemC, anyone? Not everybody likes VHDL. ;) the whole thing about patents and "high technology" starts to look increasingly absurd. Toolpaths govern the movements of industrial machinery, including the complex machinery used to manufacture PCBs and ICs or all and any sort. They govern the use of chemicals and radiation, for example, in printing ICs. Toolpaths are relatively trivial to implement, as indeed are algorithms -to the appropriately (self-)educated and -trained individual. Software patents and business method patents are fraud, pure and simple. And they rely on the patent examiners being equally pure and simple. _Not_ a recommendation. I'll bet you'd be grateful your average legal staff _aren't_ "pure and simple". ;) Wesley Parish > > > On Sun, 2005-02-20 at 18:33 +1300, Nick Rout wrote: > > > errr sorry if i missed your point. > > > > > > anyway, an important topic for computer enthisiasts, but particulalry > > > the free/open world that linux and its friends inhabit. -- Clinersterton beademung, with all of love - RIP James Blish ----- Mau e ki, he aha te mea nui? You ask, what is the most important thing? Maku e ki, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata. I reply, it is people, it is people, it is people.
