From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,52a0bacbcdd2da17 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-08-20 15:27:48 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!washdc3-snh1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!chcgil2-snh1.gtei.net!news.bbnplanet.com!wn11feed!worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.203!attbi_feed3!attbi.com!rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F43F5E2.8010403@attbi.com> From: "Robert I. Eachus" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20021120 Netscape/7.01 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Software Patent Concerns => New Black Markets? References: <20030819131158.34a38f97.falis@verizon.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.34.139.183 X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-Trace: rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net 1061418468 24.34.139.183 (Wed, 20 Aug 2003 22:27:48 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 22:27:48 GMT Organization: Comcast Online Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 22:27:48 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:41750 Date: 2003-08-20T22:27:48+00:00 List-Id: Ed Falis wrote: > Because of people like the guy who claimed to have invented "threads" in > 1986 that a patent lawyer asked my opinion of? Or the one who claimed > to have invented the call stack in the early 80's? Or some of the many > other patents granted to large corporations for common practice > algorithms, so they could use them to muscle other people in the > industry? Actually, I have been in the situation of being deprived due to the patent system refusing software patents. (I had a patent on a compressed file system refused in 1968.) I have also been in the situation where I thought software patents were bad. I have now come to the conclusion that the problem with software patents is the 20 year lifetime. In every case where I have seen software patents used to do active harm, if the life of a software patent had been 10 years, the damage would have been minimal, and at five years non-existant. Now if someone could patent say the graphics engine used in Unreal Tournament for five years, I would say "Great, you deserve the money you get." But if someone with a patent on, say the original Doom engine could enforce it against UT, that would be a problem. -- Robert I. Eachus "As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure." -- Jacques Chirac, President of France "As far as France is concerned, you're right." -- Rush Limbaugh