Re: XMMS and the new MP3 patent terms
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On Thursday 29 Aug 2002 9:40 am, Pavel Bradut Boghita wrote:
> I am following this thread with interest, because this whole issue of
> pattenting the wheel and then charging everyone who uses it is really quite
> perverse.
> I am a complete outsider as far as this kind of programming is concerned,
> but I would like to get something a bit more clearer in my head. My parents
> have been involved with patents at one stage or another in their lifes. And
> from what I've seen they really had to work hard to prove that whatever
> they were pattenting was original and not done before (this was/is
> happening in Romania).
> How then, can someone patent code which has been around and used for quite
> a while I just don't get it.
Im afraid its very simple:
Romania (+most other countries) = reasonable patent system, protecting the
little guy (the original point of patents)
America = Sick joke of a patent system (for software anyway) desinged to keep
Georges friends (read financial contributors) happy.
Anyone else notice that it was king GEORGE who was famously insane, and now
there is GEORGE bush, i see a pattern emerging :)
Thankfully, most of the rest of the world will ignore patents on software, and
even countries like the UK who have treaties with the US on patent issues
will still ignore software patents as they cant be obtained in the uk.
Tom
Sorry for ranting, im just sick of the way the US allows big business to
bugger over the little guy (not really specific in this case, but definately
to many other software patent issues)
- --
Email: tb100@doc.ic.ac.uk || Jabber: tombadran@jabber.com
Homepage: http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~tb100
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