Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
Ah intellectual property wars... Thanks for the info, I get it now. I guess it's the same process in which something like Steamboat Willy never enters the public domain. Mark --- jeff larson <jeff.larson@sailpoint.com> wrote: > From: mark sottilaro > [mailto:zerocrossing2001@yahoo.com] > > Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a patent a > > protection of an idea's implementation and not an > > idea? > > Yes, that was the original intent of the patent > system. The problem > is that there is now widespread abuse of the system, > especially in > software, to patent concepts or ideas rather than > implementations > or processes. Hell, back in the internet glory days > people were > even patenting *business models*, like the concept > of an online > auction for plane tickets which someone thought they > should > "own" for the next 30 years. > > A great number of these patents are invalid because > the inventions > would be "obvious to practitioners in the field" or > there is "prior > art" that someone has already come up with that > invention. But this > doesn't matter because in order to prove either of > these you have to > enter into a very costly legal battle. Individuals > and small companies > generally just give up and make annoying changes or > go out of business. > > This is a very important issue not only for software > developers, but > for consumers that want choices. If you want some > background, a good > general introduction is James Gleick's article > originally published in > the New York Times Magazine: > > http://www.around.com/patent.html > > For more of a scientific perspective, Jeffrey Ullman > has an excellent > paper here: > > > http://www-db.stanford.edu/~ullman/pub/focs00.html > > Jeff > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com