__/ [ Lee Sau Dan ] on Saturday 23 September 2006 14:20 \__
>>>>>> "Roy" == Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
> Roy> US software patents hit record high ,----[ Quote ] | US
> Roy> Patent and Trademark Office made a new record for the number
> Roy> of | software patents awarded in a single year. The agency
> Roy> has issued 893 | new patents yesterday, pushing the total to
> Roy> 30,232 in this year. `----
>
> Roy> http://www.realgeek.com/230/us-software-patents-hit-record-high/
>
> Roy> Questions arise as to whether you can write a program (or a
> Roy> Web-based system) without unintentionally invading someone
> Roy> else's 'intellectual territory'.
>
> Has hello-world programs been patented yet?
Well, to be fair, there's prior art there (I can find a few examples among my
files if it helps *sigh*). But according to RMS, prior art is not the main
issue. Have a cursory look at the following:
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/5710/997/
Stallman gets it right on patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The way of the Free Software Foundation is to insist on purity. The way
| of open source is to seek compromises.
|
| [...]
|
| "Such a project cannot really protect programmers from software
| patents, because it focuses only on absurd software patents - those
| that could be legally denied or invalidated based on prior art. However,
| the greatest danger comes from patents that are not absurd, those for
| which we have no prior art."
`----
roy@BAINE:~> echo 'h3llo w0rld'
h3llo w0rld
roy@BAINE:~> echo 'hello world'
bash: copyright infringement detected
Your machine will reboot NOW!!!
--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com | Free as in Free Beer ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Cpu(s): 19.5% user, 2.7% system, 0.9% nice, 76.9% idle
http://iuron.com - semantic engine to gather information
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