Slashdot Mirror
RMS On How To Fight Software Patents
rimberg writes "Richard M. Stallman has a article on NewsForge talking about ways to fight software patents. It mentions the Public Patent Foundation (and why it's a good idea), but argues that fighting patents one by one will never eliminate the danger of software patents, any more than swatting mosquitoes will eliminate malaria." (Newsforge, like Slashdot, is part of OSTG.)
Even though I haven't read it.
"but argues that fighting patents one by one will never eliminate the danger of software patents"
May I helpfully suggest tactical nukes?
That's what I've been telling everybody, you have to put all the masquitoes in a jar and then through that giant jar in a fire.
I like suggestions, but I don't like contributing towards them.
LOL... See, this is the kind of weird shit that stallman says that makes people outside the tech industry go:
"What the fuck is that guy talking about?".
To make a part of the castle safe, you've got to do more than kill the monsters as they appear -- you have to wipe out the generator that produces them.
But you'd get a lot more experience points if you leave the generator running and ambush the monsters one-by-one as they emerge.
And this Stallman guy thinks he's a geek. Sheesh!
You bastard! Copying copyrighted works into Slashdot! Have you no shame! Look it says:
Copyright 2004 Richard Stallman.
Fool.
Hmmm.... wait..... Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide without royalty in any medium provided this notice is preserved.
Uh, hmm..... er.... cannot comprehend this use of copyright...
[corporate head explodes]
Fellowship 9/11
That's funnier than the time I flew some planes into some buidings.
Am I dead yet?
I do not think it means what you think it means. :)
Perhaps I should send this guy a screenshot of a Versalife bathroom ( Deus Ex ) filled with bodies of every killable NPC in the Chinese area. I should really apply this attitude to my current Icewind Dale II game. Those damn shopkeepers and town guards just wanted to cheat me anyway!
RMS will have to trademark those three letters soon, or cede their use to his favorite software giant.
Any tin-foil hatters out there want to say that MSFT chose those three letters on purpose?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Craporations?
Copro-ations?
Crop-rotations?
Crap-of-nations?
Score -1, misspelling and (bonus!) grammar error.
Score +1, but the mispelling is so funny.
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
Yes, everyone knows the European Transvestite Parliament is actually in Transylvania.
But, he's not a fool. He is professionell!
...any more than you can expect to kill every monster in a video game: sooner or later, one is going to defeat you...
Not if I activated the god code!
That actually looks a lot like a software program to me, the only difference being the language it's written in.
Now, wouldn't there be patents that describe algorithms that are actually used in the lawbooks too? That way, you could either make the lawmakers see that patenting software is like patenting lawmaking, or, if the lawmakers argue that the important thing here is the different language the laws are written in, then you could write a Law-to-C translator, that translates algorithms described in a law-like language to C (or any other computer-language).
RMS, I love how you always start treads as anonymous coward, and reply to them yourself so that we like you more.
It tricked me for years but it was because i wasn't stepping into your shoes. Now I am as paranoid as you, and i can see what you're doing.
Rock on.