Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: abolishing software patents? (got IP game?)

Author:David McCusker
Posted:9/22/2000; 10:14:43 AM
Topic:got IP game?
Msg #:21638 (In response to 21636)
Prev/Next:21637 / 21639

Since the middle part seems to depend entirely on the first suppostion, I'll focus on just the supposition and attendant final if-then.

Kabir X:Patents can potentially be used to enforce a usage policy for a given technology.

How? That's a very big maybe. This doesn't seem to happen currently. Why would it? Also, most of my comments on patents are qualified to refer to software patents. I can't see how other kinds of patents are relevant in this forum. Can you think of a software technology you could patent and control for moral reasons? (I expect folks to mention encryption, but it's too late to control that.)

Kabir X: If patents are to be abolished, then we need a mechanism that allows for the enforcement of the deployment and usage policies for a given technology.

Wait, that begs the question in the first supposition, whether it might even be possible to use patents to enforce usage policies.

My exact words were, "I'm a software patent abolitionist." I want to abolish software patents, not all patents. Perhaps I should not have abbreviated the topic subject for clarity.

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