On Friday 13 Aug 2010, Nagarjuna G wrote: > On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 7:52 PM, Pranesh Prakash <pran...@cis- india.org> wrote: > > By Ryan Paul from Ars Technica: > > http://j.mp/d11PU9 > > > > At the Linux Foundation's annual LinuxCon event this week, Columbia > > University law professor and Software Freedom Law Center founder > > Eben Moglen explained that prospects for software patent reform > > are bleak and that the time has come for the free software > > community to start finding ways to solve its patent problems by > > using the patent system itself. > > Isn't this a good news to lawyers :-) > > This is not a solution to the problem. The cause of the problem is > the denial of the fundamental right to the citizens to be creative. > We need to claim this right.
Fully agreed. The original method RMS used to defeat copyright (copyleft, i.e. subverting copyright using the copyright system itself) will not necessarily work in all scenarios. Specially in the case of patents, since: 1. Assignment of patents is expensive whereas assignment of copyright is automatic and free. 2. Patents are deliberately worded to prevent easy identification of "similar works", whereas it's easy to spot plagiarism in copyrighted material. Much as I respect Eben and the work he's done for free software, in this case I am completely at odds with his goals. It seems to be throwing away the war (against software patents) due to losing a single battle (Bilski). Incidentally, FWIW, Eben's a lawyer too ;-) Regards, -- Raj -- Raj Mathur [email protected] http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance & Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves _______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
