Promotion of software patents == opposition to Open Source.

[Ben Reser]

On Mon, Jan 19, 2004 at 01:30:14PM -0500, Russell McOrmond wrote:
> (1) Software patents and interface copyrights are used to revoke creators
> rights (copyright holder need not be aware of a patent in order to have
> information process patent infringement claims revoke their copyright - a
> real form of "copyright theft") and traditional property rights (owners of
> ICT licensed to be under the control of some third party, part of the DMCA
> problem).

I seriously doubt this is true.  You may feel that the effect of the
patent right revokes a copyright.  But I doubt that is reflected in the
law.  Considering that a patent is for a significantly shorter term than
a copyright you may just be temporarily impaired from making use of your
work.

If patents are good or not is really not clear to me.  I think it really
depends on the circumstance.  But I don't think it's very useful to your
argument to distort things.

I particularly think your condescending tone is unsuited to this list
and your argument.  It is very likely influencing the responses you're
getting.  As more people have replied to you disagreeing with you you've
gradually increased this tone.  That's not to justify any of the
responses you've gotten.  Some of them are downright bad themselves.

However, perhaps the more effective thing to do here is reach out to IBM
and ask them why they're behaving this way.  I don't think anyone on
this list can really answer that question for you.  Roblimo has offered
to ask IBM himself.

I think it's clear that some people in the Open Source community do not
have the same feelings as you do about patents.  Continuing this thread
isn't likely to change that or get your question answered.

-- 
Ben Reser <ben at reser.org>
http://ben.reser.org

"Conscience is the inner voice which warns us somebody may be looking."
- H.L. Mencken
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