Maybe humankind can be blessed with a new virus to be hidden in one of the chain friends/good luck/other junk e-mails. When the message is forwarded to the requisite number of friends the forward function of the sender's mail client is disabled. The creator of this would get my vote for Commander of the Universe and Master of Time and Space.
Perhaps a cause of this and other similar problems is calling software routines tools. When the patent office (and lawyers) see the word tools, they have some precedent to go with, namely it's patentable. Tools are tools no matter if it's a machine or some code. Assign a patent number and go onto the next application.
If they had to come to grips with the beast as a new idea they would be forced to give it a good look over and hopefully realize that (for the most part) these entities shouldn't fall under the patent wand.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe humankind can be blessed with a new virus to be hidden in one of the chain friends/good luck/other junk e-mails. When the message is forwarded to the requisite number of friends the forward function of the sender's mail client is disabled. The creator of this would get my vote for Commander of the Universe and Master of Time and Space.
Perhaps a cause of this and other similar problems is calling software routines tools. When the patent office (and lawyers) see the word tools, they have some precedent to go with, namely it's patentable. Tools are tools no matter if it's a machine or some code. Assign a patent number and go onto the next application. If they had to come to grips with the beast as a new idea they would be forced to give it a good look over and hopefully realize that (for the most part) these entities shouldn't fall under the patent wand.