|
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, November 16 2012 @ 04:51 AM EST |
Pulling the word Software from your post would still be just as true. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, November 16 2012 @ 10:08 AM EST |
I wouldn't even call that the "primary problem", although it is certainly a big
one.
As a software developer, I totally hate software patents. They have
almost no beneficial effects at all, and have vast harmful effects throughout
the entire software ecosystem.
Here's a bunch of problems with them that I
can think of off the top of my head.
Software patents:
Are written in
obfuscated legalese, so when you think of a new algorithm (even a fairly obvious
one) its almost impossible to search for any patent(s) that it might be
infringing
Almost never explain how to actually build the patented
"invention"
Cover broad swathes of abstract mathematics instead of being
appropriately narrow
Patent subject matter which is entirely mathematical,
even though U.S. law supposedly prohibits this
Pretend to patent "a specific
machine that computes X", but actually patent "any use of a general purpose
computer to compute X"
Often read on ANY implementation that can possibly
solve the specific problem, rather than just the one implementation that the
patent owner actually invented
Are mainly used by large companies as an
anti-competitive weapon against their smaller competitors, and by patent trolls
to extract money from real innovators.
Cause most sensible developers to
avoid the patented algorithms, often leading to years of stagnation in the
subfields where those algorithms are useful (e.g. data compression, video
codecs)
Software patents need to die, before they weaken our software
industry any further than they already have. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
|
|
|