On Tuesday 28 August 2007 10:32, you wrote: >There is a bill before Congress now to roll back patent protection, >notably in the field of software. American users of OpenBSD might >want to follow this struggle, which is running into massive opposition >from non-comp-sci patent holders.
Software patents were just a bad idea to begin with. Patenting numbers and algorithms is ridiculous. I wish i had a patent on determining the total number of objects in a set when the numbers of objects in all mutually exclusive subsets of the set are known [my lame attempt to translate "addition" into patent-speak]. Imagine how much money i could make if i controlled such a basic operation! Oh wait, civilization as we know it would never have been able to develop and instead of working a "civilized" job at a computer i'd be in out hunting and gathering or (more likely) wouldn't have been born at all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dan Ramaley Dial Center 118, Drake University Network Programmer/Analyst 2407 Carpenter Ave +1 515 271-4540 Des Moines IA 50311 USA
