Patents are merely an agreement between gov't and private sector wherein you agree to publish your invention or idea in exchange for an exclusive franchise for a number of years. You may choose not to copyright your invention but you will risk someone else stealing the idea and making money of your ideas and labor. This extends to software as well as any other process or device.
You may, of course, choose not to patent your software if you are willing to take-on the risk of protecting the design yourself (such as locking the original source code in a safe deposit box at the bank) and reducing your ability to work on future enhancements (addded security risk) So yes, software patents have a place in society for those who want a reasonable assurance that their ideas and productive labour can be protected by law. -----Original Message----- From: Manny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Philippine Linux Users Group Mailing List <[email protected]> Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 18:28:54 +0800 (PHT) Subject: Re: [plug] Re: Linux trends in the Philippines Just want to point out that protecting one's intellectual property can be legally done in two very distinct ways: patent and copyright. The two are quite different. Copyright protects the actual work. This applies to software, movies, books, etc. This applies even if the work is a revisdion of someone else's idea. Just think of all the romance novels that are essentially "Romeo and Juliet" stories. They can be copyrightede. Patent gives proprietary rights to the IDEA, not just the acvtual work. Thus, if somehow "Romeo and Juliet" plots could be patented, no one could write a novel with the same general plot, and the literary world would be impoverished (well, ok, the pulp fiction literary world at least). Software copyrights are fine. Software patents, however, are restrict creativity and innovation. Software patents have no place in society. God bless! -- Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots -- Petition Against Software Patents -- http://www.petitiononline.com/openm01 --[Manny [EMAIL PROTECTED] Member: Philippine League for Democratic Telecommunications "Affordable Access for All" --[Open Minds Philippines]--------------------[openminds.linux.org.ph]-- -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph .. To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug .. Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie a-- Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots -- Petition Against Software Patents -- http://www.petitiononline.com/openm01 --[Manny [EMAIL PROTECTED] Member: Philippine League for Democratic Telecommunications "Affordable Access for All" --[Open Minds Philippines]--------------------[openminds.linux.org.ph]-- -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph .. To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug .. Are y -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
