the apparatus is always a long-winded legalese description which (if translated
into plain English) boils down to "a general-purpose computer".
They are all
patents on using a general-purpose calculating machine, to perform specific
mathematical calculations whose results can be interpreted as having a
certain semantic meaning.
...Even arithmetic coding, which is closer to a
"pure math" application than most pieces of software, is effectively the same
thing as a supposedly-different thing called "range coding". The math makes
them completely equivalent, but range coding was published in the public domain
in the late 70's, and people were still getting patents on arithmetic coding in
the 90's.
That's one of the many problems with allowing patents on
abstractions, on ideas, on mathematics. Even recognizing that two patents or
publications describe the same subject matter seems to be beyond the
capabilities of the patent system. How can we demand that all programmers
everywhere deal with it? [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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