From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Mon Mar 10 2003 - 17:27:13 MST
> (cryofan@mylinuxisp.com <cryofan@mylinuxisp.com>):
> I write patents for a living. So obviously I have a bias...
I'm sure there are honest farmers who oppose farm subsidies,
just as there are authors and musicians and artists and
programmers who oppose copyright and inventors who oppose
patents. Don't assume that because a present political
system favors some group that there aren't members of that
group with the vision and integrity to look beyond their own
short-term interests.
> But mainly our clients seek protection for the products
> they are developing. Why should they spend millions to develop,
> for example, a circuit simulation system, and then sell it, only
> to have a competitor copy the design for a fraction of the cost?
Just as I said, that's the only good argument in favor of patents:
to encourage long-term speculative R&D.
> Obviously, the world is a better place for having a superduper
> new circuit simulation engine available to make all our trinkets,
> and maybe even help design life saving devices....
Ah, but it's not as obvious as you think. What if instead of
locking themselves in a room for ten years and building the
simulator from scratch they had instead spent a few weeks adapting
an existing well-known open source simulation system to their
application and posted their patches on the net? Then they or
someone else spends a week or two fixing bugs or improving its
performance, then they or someone else adds a new feature or two,...
and that process continues a week at a time for that same ten years.
Wouldn't a more reliable system be available sooner for more people
to use to create those lifesaving widgets (or whatever other uses
other people might have some up with for other adaptations of
the system)?
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Mar 10 2003 - 17:33:03 MST