From wollny@cns.mpg.de  Fri Sep  8 08:43:43 2000
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2000 10:43:43 +0200
From: Gert Wollny wollny@cns.mpg.de
Subject: [Patents] Re: ICANN elections -- Endorsement of a candidate --
 URGENT

Didier Metzen wrote:
> 
> What do you think of copyright? It is also ownership on any kind of ideas.

No, it is only the ownership of _your_ _implementation_ of the idea.
Others may implement the same idea using their own technics without any
restrictions. 

IOW: If i write code today, i own it (copyright), and everything is
fine. 
If software becomes patentable, I'll have to spend significant
resources, to find out, if the idea behind the code is already proteced
by a patent. And since most software patents cover very simple ideas,
this becomes a nightmare. This is one of the reasons, why software
patents are a Bad Thing (TM).




