The most critical function of a patent or a copyright is that it allows the
owner (I'll call this person, for now) of the thing--the invention, the
implementation of an idea, etc--to assert ownership of that thing. With
that ownership comes the ability to mandate, for the duration of that
ownership, the dissemination of that thing. For instance, without
ownership, the GNU license would be impossible, because there would be no
owner to assert the requirement for that license to be applied.
Notice I have never said anything about owning ideas. In the US, at least,
owning ideas is explicitly excluded from the patent/copyright process,
however blurred that seems to be getting now. I have an idea for a thing:
I write a book that describes that idea, or I build a better keyboard that
is an implementation of that idea--the book and the keyboard are mine to
control the use of, but the idea remains owned by no one. You can write a
different book describing that same idea, and you can build your own better
keyboard that implements that same idea, so long as its a different
implementation from mine.
Eric Hines
At 05/30/05 12:43, you wrote:
M. Fioretti wrote:
Maybe you meant _software_ or _algorithm_ _only_ patents, not all
possible patents in every field, didn't you?
I used the word "idea" and "idea" is precisely what I mean. Ideas are not
constrained to software. If I draw a painting about a dragon, I should not
be able to prevent you from drawing your own painting about a dragon, even
though that's not an algorithm, or software.
<snip>
I question the general validity of patents. Suppose you design a better
keyboard, so that it's much easier to learn. Should you be granted a
monopoly on making keyboards with that design? I don't think so. You are
free to disagree. We can just agree to disagree on that.
Cheers,
Daniel.
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Government programs provide enough to keep you alive, but they don't offer
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--Grim
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