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____/ Chris Ahlstrom on Tuesday 03 February 2009 12:22 : \____
>
>
> After takin' a swig o' grog, Rex Ballard belched out
> this bit o' wisdom:
>
>> Thomas Edison was notorious for his abuse of patents, chasing film
>> producers from Rochester New York to California, having hired thugs
>> demolish cameras and projectors if the producers didn't give Edison
>> the royalties he demanded (which were steep). More important was the
>> way he protected his patents, working desparately to prevent the
>> adoption of Alternating Current, which eliminated the need for a
>> governer used to synchronize DC generators.
>>
>> Until about 1983, most software could not be patented. It was only
>> when RSA filed for a patent on their encryption - one device entirely
>> implemented in hardware, and the other implemented entirely in
>> software, that the judge decided that both "black boxes" could be
>> patented.
>>
>> Around 1994, Republicans decided that ALL software could be patented,
>> since software was just a bunch of black boxes connected together.
>> This was especally true of UNIX. In fact, again, it was getting hard
>> to tell what was hardware and what was software in things like
>> telephone systems.
>
> I doubt it was just Republicans.
>
> Both House and Senate wear business suits.
They just have different hats or "brands".
- --
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Roughly 2% of your keyboard is O/S-specific
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU is Not UNIX | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
http://iuron.com - proposing a non-profit search engine
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