On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 11:59 AM, Josh Berry <tae...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2011/3/7 Cédric Beust ♔ <ced...@beust.com>: > > > > > > On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 7:19 AM, Reinier Zwitserloot <reini...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > >> > >> A world without software patents already exists in europe, more or less > > > > That's a common misconception. > > How come you haven't addressed the fact that the world of software > development in the US was effectively without patent protection for > the vast majority of the rapid development when it was starting? I hadn't really thought about it but it doesn't seem very relevant to the current discussion, unless we can come up with objective ways to state that "things were better before we had software patents". That seems like an impossible task, so I'd rather focus on what's happening today by simply observing that the system seems to be working okay for the most part. > Or is that a misconception as well? Can you imagine the world of PC > clones if the original BIOS had had patent protection? > Again, I'm not sure what conclusion you can draw from what happened. It obviously worked well for all parties involved (IBM, Microsoft and even DR) and created an industry generating hundreds of billions of dollars. And yes, there are a lot of misconceptions about how things went down, especially the part where Microsoft somehow "stole" ideas and software. It was a business deal with all parties fully aware of what was going on (and you have to give credit to Gates' vision for betting that other vendors would soon clone the system, and therefore, choosing not to bother with copyrights). -- Cédric -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javaposse@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
