Andrew Brown -who also does religious journalism, assuming it's the same guy- has a nice write-up of the issues of software patents following Bill Gates' recent foot-in-mouth incident accusing us Creative coomons-ists of communism. In a nice analogy he identifies the problem:
"It is as if the Sheriff of Nottingham were to announce that it's enormously important that your property was protected from criminals - so he'll take everything you have that might be stolen and lock it up for safety in his castle."
Copyright isn't the issue, though; Gates is after patenting stuff. And again Mr Brown has a pithy way of putting the issue: "Software builds on other people's ideas. Claiming royalties on certain fundamental ideas looks like an easy road to endless riches: BT attempted to patent the clicking on hyperlinks in the world wide web. Microsoft has applied for 1,500 patents, some of them nearly as ridiculous. If these were granted, or enforceable, it would stifle innovation and work against the beneficial effects of copyright. Copyrighting allows people to benefit from their labours, but software patents allow the companies with the largest legal departments to benefit from everyone else's work"
Guardian Unlimited | Online | The war on copyright communists:
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