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Torvalds Joins Anti-Patent Attack

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the patents-schmatents dept.

canuck57 sent us a story about Linus Torvalds has joined the chorus of voices speaking out against software patents. Talks briefly about the recent patent releases by IBM & Sun, and notes that there are 'an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 registered software patents in the U.S. alone.'

2 of 357 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Something I've never understood... by Kwil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't think we should be able to patent processes at all.

    A process is the ultimate business advantage. If you can come up with it, you deserve to reap the rewards from using it. Not from selling it to or litigating against some other group.

    This is where the system breaks down. Some things are not meant to be non-freely shared around society.

    Patents should return to whence they came. Physical objects.

    Copyrights should return to whence they came. Expression of ideas.

    Processes are neither, and therefore shouldn't be covered by either.

    --

    That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze

  2. It's simple... by Corson · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Back in 80s there wasn't so much patenting going on in Silicon Valley. In those times you needed to innovate and bring the product to the market so fast that you couldn't afford to apply for patents; even two weeks counted on the learning curve. And people became instant milionaires.

    Twenty years later, after a recent bumpy ride in the IT sector, investors (who generally understand little in terms of technoloy) would not invest unless they see there is some IP protection -- a.k.a. patents. Hence, the pressure for software patent legislation comming from companies that want to positively attract investor's attention. Big sharks such as M$ shouldn't really need software patents unless everybody else moves in that direction. They also probably learned a lot from big Pharma that patent everything they "discover" and then license those "discoveries" out to smaller companies. It's a different game these days, a different kind of race that, I'm afraid, the small fish (read: open-source developers) will unfortunately lose.