[PLUG-TALK] Software Patents
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
znmeb at cesmail.net
Sun Feb 13 20:20:50 UTC 2005
Rich Shepard wrote:
> Anyone care about software patents? The attached article from The
> Register
> makes a powerful statement why software patents should be abolished. But,
> who is carrying the issue to Congress?
The lobbyists for IBM, Sun, Microsoft, Intel, HP, Red Hat ...
Seriously, though, quite a few "software patents" have opened up, as the
owners realized they couldn't defend them, or it wasn't worth the effort
to defend them even if they could, or a superior open alternative
existed. Now, if you *really* want to go after someone, how about
patents on pharmaceuticals that couldn't exist without the "generosity"
of the American taxpayer via the National Institutes of Health?
The point is, our Constitution *clearly* defines rights to what we now
call "intellectual property", and it will require a Constitutional
amendment to change that. Given the notable lack of success of both
conservative-sponsored and liberal-sponsored amendments in the past 30
years or so, I'd say intellectual property and its associated "battery
of white-lipped attorneys" is with us for a while.
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