[Patents] Re: CNET.com - News - The Net - Court Programming languages covered b y First Amendm

[Andrea Brugiolo andrea@samantha.psy.unipd.it]

On Wed, Apr 05, 2000 at 11:02:43AM -0500, Lynn Winebarger wrote:
> On Wed, 5 Apr 2000, Anjul Srivastava wrote:
> 
> > Good News!    
> >  
> >  
> > http://technews.netscape.com/news/0-1005-200-1641004-0.html?pt.netscape.fd.h
> > l.ne
> 
>    Yes, indeed.  Here's the link for the court's actual decision:
> http://pacer.ca6.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=00a0117p.06
> 
> Here's a particularly relevant quote:
>      The Supreme Court has explained that "all ideas having even the
> slightest redeeming social importance," including those concerning "the
> advancement of truth, science, morality, and arts" have the full
> protection of the First Amendment. Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476,
> 484 (1957) (quoting 1 Journals of the Continental Congress 108 (1774)).
> This protection is not reserved for purely expressive
> communication. The Supreme Court has recognized First Amendment protection
> for symbolic conduct, such as draft-card burning, that has both functional
> and expressive features. See United States v. O'Brien,
> 391 U.S. 367 (1968).

        I'm  wandering  if  such  a decision  will  ever  produce  any
        repercussion  also   in  the  patents  policy   in  the  US...
        hopefully. And in the european ridiculous plans too! (Will our
        governors  ever understand,  in  Europe, how  to live  without
        blindly slurping anything from behind  the Ocean as soon as it
        sprang out,  as it were  always coming from the  best possible
        world...?)

                Andrea Brugiolo
-- 
 
   Andrea Brugiolo                                          nick@linux.it
   Pluto Linux Users Group      http://www.pluto.linux.it
   Linux in Libraries           http://thunder.cab.unipd.it
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