I am a developer in Canada, one of my workmates went to a job working for a local city. It's a union shop, so he gets; pay raises according to a fixed pay grid, advances according to seniority, all holidays off and so on. Not a bad gig if you can get it, IMO.
What's the big deal? Yes all computer programs are math, and no, they can't and shouldn't be patented. However, they are automatically copyrighted, and that's as it should be. If I write a program (which I do a lot it's my job), then the actual code I write is copyrighted and if anyone steals it they're in trouble. However, if someone sees my app codes up one just like it, no problem. If they didn't steal my actual code there's no copyright infringement. OTOH, if programs were patentable, there would be a patent infringement. In case anyone needs it spelled out, that would mean the end of open source software.
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I am a developer in Canada, one of my workmates went to a job working for a local city. It's a union shop, so he gets; pay raises according to a fixed pay grid, advances according to seniority, all holidays off and so on. Not a bad gig if you can get it, IMO.
What's the big deal? Yes all computer programs are math, and no, they can't and shouldn't be patented. However, they are automatically copyrighted, and that's as it should be. If I write a program (which I do a lot it's my job), then the actual code I write is copyrighted and if anyone steals it they're in trouble. However, if someone sees my app codes up one just like it, no problem. If they didn't steal my actual code there's no copyright infringement. OTOH, if programs were patentable, there would be a patent infringement. In case anyone needs it spelled out, that would mean the end of open source software.