From Bernard.Lang@inria.fr  Fri Jan 19 13:53:26 2001
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 14:53:26 +0100
From: Bernard Lang Bernard.Lang@inria.fr
Subject: [Patents] the burden factor in soft vs hard

On Thu, Jan 18, 2001 at 03:10:33PM -0500, Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> >Information has zero replication cost
> 
> Which, whatever its truth, has nothing to do with the issue of
> whether or not something is patentable, at least here in the 
> United States.  The patent system grants someone a monopoly to
> incent them to invent something, but the laws for the most part
> say nothing about how much reward the inventor should get - that
> is left to the marketplace.  So the cost of information (such as
> patentable software) is irrelevant to patent law as it is now
> stated.


and is the US Constitution relevant ?


Bernard Lang

-- 
         Non aux Brevets Logiciels  -  No to Software Patents
           SIGNEZ    http://petition.eurolinux.org/    SIGN

Bernard.Lang@inria.fr             ,_  /\o    \o/    Tel  +33 1 3963 5644
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~lang/  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  Fax  +33 1 3963 5469
            INRIA / B.P. 105 / 78153 Le Chesnay CEDEX / France
         Je n'exprime que mon opinion - I express only my opinion
                 CAGED BEHIND WINDOWS or FREE WITH LINUX




