From jtobey@john-edwin-tobey.org  Mon Oct 16 16:34:05 2000
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 12:34:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Tobey jtobey@john-edwin-tobey.org
Subject: [Patents] Counterexamples to John, Hartmut, Edward

Gregory Aharonian <srctran@world.std.com> wrote:
> John writes:
> >Posters here have cited drug development as an area where the patent
> >system works, and I think that there are plenty such areas.
> 
> Don't say that do people in third world countries who can't afford to
> use patented AIDS drugs.  You can't use some patented software, you
> do something else with software.  You can't use some patented AIDS
> drug, you die.  So when it comes to suffering because of software patents,
> that is nothing compared to the suffering of lack of access to drugs,
> which has become so controversial that it is an issue in the current
> US presidential campaign.

You are shifting your ground, a sign that you are losing the debate.
To answer your off-topic comment: Yes, and fortunately, most people in
the Third World have the common sense not to respect foreign patents
against their own interest.  I do not want to argue whether patents on
AIDS drugs should be granted or enforced, at least not in this forum.

You have several times objected to the use of "suffering" with respect
to deprivation of intellectual freedom.  Freedoms of thought and
speech clearly differ from rights of physical safety and health, but
the last 1,000 years of our history, I believe, show that the former
at least somewhat promote the latter.  In any event, I am optimistic
that software will help to ease many of the world's forms of
suffering.  The word "suffering" is appropriate to both kinds of
deprivation.

> >That is why I am all riled up against software patents.  It feel as if
> >the system holds a gun to my head with every piece of code I write.
> 
> Unless the code you are writing is going to be worth lots and lots of 
> money, no one with a software patent is ever going to pay the slightest
> bit of attention to the code you are writing.  You paranoia is greatly
> exaggerated.

So, if I understand you, you are telling me not to worry, but to go
ahead and break the law, because no one will care enough to enforce it
as long as I produce nothing of value, right?

For one thing, I don't believe you.  For another, I do aspire to
produce software of value.  I write the best software I can.  I write
both free and proprietary software, and the gun is at my head in all
cases.

-- 
John Tobey, late nite hacker <jtobey@john-edwin-tobey.org>
\\\                                                               ///
]]]             With enough bugs, all eyes are shallow.           [[[
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