I don't want to live in that world. But is there not a flip side from the inventors point of view?
I would 100% agree with you if the resources to litigate were distributed evenly. Unfortunately they're not.
If you were sad, mad, and poor, you wouldn't be able to anything, because "poor" would disqualify you. No one would even represent you pro bono, probably.
The only people that meaningfully benefit from patents are corporations. If you don't buy that argument, let me know, because it's pretty important that I persuade you. :) Of course, that tends to be the least effective way to persuade someone, but still.
In September 1990, users of the popular XyWrite word processing
program got a disturbing letter in the mail from XyQuest, Inc., the
program's publisher:
"In June of 1987, we introduced an automatic correction and
abbreviation expansion feature in XyWrite III Plus. Unbeknownst to us,
a patent application for a related capability had been filed in 1984
and was subsequently granted in 1988. The company holding the patent
contacted us in late 1989 and apprised us of the existence of their
patent.
We have decided to modify XyWrite III Plus so that it cannot be
construed as infringing. The newest version of XyWrite III Plus (3.56)
incorporates two significant changes that address this issue: You will
no longer be able to automatically correct common spelling errors by
pressing the space bar after the misspelled word. In addition, to
expand abbreviations stored in your personal dictionary, you will have
to press control-R or another designated hot key."
That's the kind of world we live in thanks to patents. Is that healthy?
My mind is open too: If that's a good thing by you, I'd love to hear the reasoning.
> That's the kind of world we live in thanks to patents. Is that healthy?
I agree, it's not healthy.
And I agree completely about the resources angle, if I'm alone, I'm SOL. If I'm in a huge company then I can fight. This is definitely the core failing of the patent system that it's biased toward wealth, and being abused by the wealthy.
> My mind is open too: If that's a good thing by you, I'd love to hear the reasoning.
I really appreciate you saying it that way. I don't think it's a good thing, I just appreciate the intent. And I don't think it fails 100% of the time, I think it works sometimes and fails a lot. I think getting rid of software patents has a chance of improving everything, but I'm not 100% certain. There might be unintended consequences. Like, I guess I'd put it this way: it's not very likely that the rich & resourceful will stop winning, no matter what happens, right?
I would 100% agree with you if the resources to litigate were distributed evenly. Unfortunately they're not.
If you were sad, mad, and poor, you wouldn't be able to anything, because "poor" would disqualify you. No one would even represent you pro bono, probably.
The only people that meaningfully benefit from patents are corporations. If you don't buy that argument, let me know, because it's pretty important that I persuade you. :) Of course, that tends to be the least effective way to persuade someone, but still.
See Stallman's writing posted upthread (http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/projects/lpf/Links/prep.ai.m...):
In September 1990, users of the popular XyWrite word processing program got a disturbing letter in the mail from XyQuest, Inc., the program's publisher:
"In June of 1987, we introduced an automatic correction and abbreviation expansion feature in XyWrite III Plus. Unbeknownst to us, a patent application for a related capability had been filed in 1984 and was subsequently granted in 1988. The company holding the patent contacted us in late 1989 and apprised us of the existence of their patent.
We have decided to modify XyWrite III Plus so that it cannot be construed as infringing. The newest version of XyWrite III Plus (3.56) incorporates two significant changes that address this issue: You will no longer be able to automatically correct common spelling errors by pressing the space bar after the misspelled word. In addition, to expand abbreviations stored in your personal dictionary, you will have to press control-R or another designated hot key."
That's the kind of world we live in thanks to patents. Is that healthy?
My mind is open too: If that's a good thing by you, I'd love to hear the reasoning.