Re: How free is Debian
On Sat, 10 Aug 2019 10:52:39 +0300
Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jo, 08 aug 19, 19:05:03, John Hasler wrote:
> > deloptes writes:
> >
> > > Entirely eliminate [patents] - no, but restrict if no commercial
> > > use to 5y.
> >
> > I'd just flat out restrict them to five years. Twenty is too long.
> >
>
> That would work against inventors as instead of buying useful patents
> companies would just wait 5 years and then use it without any charge.
>
That was all that patents were ever intended to do: give the originator
a period of monopoly over that particular implementation of his idea.
It never covered different implementations.
That was in exchange for the inventor freely showing the world
('patent') how his device worked, precisely so that others could use
it later. It was never intended to grant a monopoly for half a working
lifetime, it was intended to discourage producers from keeping a
manufacturing process secret, which of course they have always been
entitled to do.
Closed-source code is secret anyway, definitely *not* patent, and ideas
cannot be patented, so the whole business is simply a demonstration of
the power of Microsoft, just as Disney dominates US copyright law.
--
Joe
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