[Patents] un peu d'humour

[Francois-Rene Rideau fare@tunes.org]

Je ne sais pas si vous êtes au courant, mais le principe des brevets idiots
a été breveté:
        http://bomis.snap.com/about/pressreleases/990927.html

PS: d'habitude, je relance mon programme de génération de .sig quand
la signature générée est plus longue que le message, mais en l'occurrence,
la citation était si bien choisie que je n'en ai pas eu le coeur.
Plus de citations du genre sur http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/quotes.html

[ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ;]
[  TUNES project for a Free Reflective Computing System  | http://tunes.org  ;]
Watt refused applications for licenses to make engines under his
patent: he discouraged experiments by Murdoch with locomotive models;
he was hostile to the use of steam at high pressure; and the authority
he wielded was such as to clog engineering enterprise for more than a
generation.  If his monopoly had been allowed to expire in 1783
England might have had railways earlier.  If a similar privilege had
been extended to Arkwright - if, indeed, his wide patents had not been
annulled in 1781-5 - it is at least possible that a dead hand might
have rested on the cotton industry also, and that forces tending to
raise the standard of life of the poor would have been stifled.

    -- Ashton T.S.,
       An Economic History of England: The 18th Century.