Re: [ox-en] [ox] Guardian 2002-03-12: Patent Nonsense (fwd)
- From: Graham Seaman <graham seul.org>
- Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 18:16:53 -0500 (EST)
The article just got onto slashdot
http://slashdot.org/articles/02/03/12/1956208.shtml?tid=155
So far the replies are all in favour of patents (in general, not for
software, and with quite a few people making an exception for '3rd world'
countries where food or medicine is concerned).
I'm surprised. I would have expected that at least the ultra-libertarian
people (the esr side of things) would be against patents as a monopoly
enforced by law. But not in this discussion. Is this just a sign of how
far the original slashdot readership has drifted away, or is it really
common opinion that patents are basically a good thing unless appplied to
software? Why do people see software patents as so different? I guess it's
natural among people who write software, but why are people who do so
quick to dismiss problems with patents outside software? Maybe I'm being
too hasty, perhaps the good posts will come later ;-)
Graham
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