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James Gleick On Software Patents

Posted by Hemos on from the very-very-well-written dept.

haase writes: "James Gleick has written a thoughtful and compelling piece on software patents for the New York Times magazine. This would be a good piece to send to your representatives. You can read it at the NY Times Web site. (Registration required.) "

2 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Re:WHO!??? by AstroJetson · · Score: 4

    James Gleick is an outstanding non-fiction science author. He wrote Chaos, a very good introduction to Chaos theory and Genius, a biography of Richard Feynman (now don't say who the #$^*@ is Feynman!). I find his writing to be technical enough to be interesting, but not over my head. While not exactly written for the layperson, his books make science more approachable to us non-PhD's.

    If anybody knows of other books by him, please let me know. I'll read anything he's written.

    --
    Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations.
  2. Can we sue the Patent Office? by dillon_rinker · · Score: 4

    If the US Patent Office violates its constitutional mandate, shouldn't we be able to sue them? (Note that the constitutional mandate may be completely different from the statutory mandate - they may be following the laws passed by Congress to a "t", yet still violating the constitution). Constitutionally, the purpose of patents is "to Promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts". If the Patent Office is not doing this, then I would suggest that they are engaging in some kind of illegal restraint of trade.

    BTW, I don't see any kind of change occurring until the megacorps decide that it is in their best interests.