The unnecessity of software patents....

[Peter Whittaker]

On Thu, 2006-20-04 at 21:47 +1000, Alexander Jacob Tsykin wrote:
> On Thursday 20 April 2006 21:13, Robert McWilliam wrote:
> >
> > The ability to license software you have written any way you like has
> > nothing to do with patents and is actually the basis of open source.
>
> A good example is the games industry. A major selling point for the best games 
> is not just specific code. It is ideas. Gameplay is also important. They 
> don't just need to control use of software through a license, they need to be 
> in a position to ban it completely should that be necessary.


If I write a game with characters X and Y, and gameplay G, you cannot do
the same without violating my copyright (and possibly my trademarks). I
don't need a patent for that....

If you write another game that improves upon my game, should I be able
to stop you from selling it? So long as it does not violate my
copyrights or my trademarks, then no, I should not be able to stop you.

This is free market competition. Let the gamers decide who has the
better game. If I cannot compete with you, I should find another line of
work.

Besides, that's not the purpose of a patent. The purpose of a patent is
to permit me to profit from work I've done where the barrier to
innovation is high, the barrier to duplication is low, copyright and
trademark do not or cannot apply, and there is a benefit to us all of my
sharing the "secrets" behind my invention (or where the nature of the
invention is such that once in use its workings cannot be shrouded or
kept secret).

At least that's how I read it (IANAL, etc.).

With proprietary software (which can often be shrouded) protected with
existing laws designed to protect copyrights, trademarks, industrial
designs, and with licenses that forbid reverse engineering, patents are
simply not necessary. With all of those things working to protect me, if
I cannot compete I should not be in the game.

(The fact that nowadays patents are not always being used/enforced as
described above is a subject for another day and diatribe. And probably
not on sounders, I think we're pretty far off-topic... ...shame on me
for contributing :->).

pww

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