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From: "Chad R. Meiners" <crmeiners@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Software Patent Concerns => New Black Markets?
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 15:04:49 -0400
Organization: Michigan State University
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"Robert C. Leif" <rleif@rleif.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.24.1061231507.299.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org...
> I also believe that mathematicians should be able to profit from their
> discoveries.

Well sometimes they can if their discoveries lead to a product or process
that is marketable ;-)  Patenting a mathematical proof is just silly.  Who
would you charge for using the proof?  A proof is an argument about the
truth of a propertity.  People can use the propertity without using the
proof.  So what about patenting propertities?  This too is silly since
propertities are naturally occuring.   You might as well try to patent the
laws of nature.

Algorithms on the other hand are a slightly different beast as Alexander
pointed out.  At least people can 'use' an algorithm ;-)

-CRM