Why do we have patents on software?
This world is weird.
OK, lets say - you want to build a table with 4 legs and a drawer. So you take your pickup truck to Home Depot and buy a saw, some wood a few nails... oh, don't forget glue and you deffinetly need some sand paper and some wood finish. If I was a betting man I'd bet someone has to have a patent for a "table with 4 legs and a drawer" right and if not then someone most likely has a patent for a special way to glue the legs on. This is a long shot but maybe you would have to pay royalties to the old fart who patented the idea of putting wood finish on wood to make it look perty.
How does this apply? Lets check it out.
I have an idea. I want to make a website with an area where people can go check out anything they want for free. This will provide information along with a community. So whats involved... Well someone already patented the idea "making a website"... crap! Even if they didn't patent the website idea someone else decided to patent the idea "creating a web community" for people to gather and share information. Thats not good for me and my idea. Oh wait.. I haven't even started to build my website yet and I'm already being sued because someone patented the idea of using a mouse and keyboard with a computer and I use Linux.
Does this make any sense at all?
Fix-It!
Slashdot Mirror
Why do we have patents on software? This world is weird. OK, lets say - you want to build a table with 4 legs and a drawer. So you take your pickup truck to Home Depot and buy a saw, some wood a few nails... oh, don't forget glue and you deffinetly need some sand paper and some wood finish. If I was a betting man I'd bet someone has to have a patent for a "table with 4 legs and a drawer" right and if not then someone most likely has a patent for a special way to glue the legs on. This is a long shot but maybe you would have to pay royalties to the old fart who patented the idea of putting wood finish on wood to make it look perty. How does this apply? Lets check it out. I have an idea. I want to make a website with an area where people can go check out anything they want for free. This will provide information along with a community. So whats involved... Well someone already patented the idea "making a website"... crap! Even if they didn't patent the website idea someone else decided to patent the idea "creating a web community" for people to gather and share information. Thats not good for me and my idea. Oh wait.. I haven't even started to build my website yet and I'm already being sued because someone patented the idea of using a mouse and keyboard with a computer and I use Linux. Does this make any sense at all? Fix-It!
Put me on the mailing list for when they figure out how to store mp3's in my brain. I'd like to free up a few hard drives.
What we need is a new protocol. HP2PTTP - p2p tunnel over HTTP.
.02
How can you possibly sort through all of the p2p traffic if all you see is web traffic?
my