Author: James P. Roberts Date: To: Wakko Warner, exim-users Subject: Re: [Exim] Is exim in trouble?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wakko Warner" <wakko@???>
To: <exim-users@???>
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 8:34 AM
Subject: Re: [Exim] Is exim in trouble?
> > I am against patenting ideas and algorithms. Science advances because
> > people publish their ideas, and others build on them. Look how slow
> > progress was, and how much duplication took place, in the centuries when
> > publication was difficult. I am also against patenting human interface
> > characteristics. It's a good thing nobody patented a steering wheel, or
> > a mouse for that matter.
>
> I am also against the patenting of ideas and such. Actually, i'm against
> patents in general. To me it seems that "I make product and patent it so
> you can't make it" causes a monopoly on that one product (microsoft
> anyone?). I'm not up on history so I don't know what went on before
> publication.
>
The original idea of a patent is a TEMPORARY ability to have a monopoly on
production, so that you can recoup your development costs, before someone else
steals the idea and sells it for less because they had no development expense.
I fully agree with this concept! There are many technologies we would simply
never have without this protection (medical x-ray machines, for example).
Unfortunately, the Patent Office has started patenting things that should
never have been patentable in the first place, and the lawyers have started
finding ways to modify existing patents to effectively extend their lives, and
many large firms patent all kinds of things and then sit on them, effectively
killing the technologies, and the system is just breaking down. It is now
more of an impediment to progress instead of an assist.
The problem with software patents, is that they do not expire quickly enough.
One can recoup software development costs in a much shorter time frame than,
say, a Model-T Ford. In fact, if you don't, your software becomes obsolete
before you recoup costs! I would propose that software patents, if they exist
at all, should expire in something like 12 months.
More generally, patents should probably be categorized by market type, to more
closely align the life span of patents with market cycle times.
"Just my three cents." (Pat. Pending) (just kidding)
