[Patents] Re: difficulty vs technicity

[phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)]

Ram'on wrote:

> When patents are used to protect complex algorithms, this protection is
> equivalent to copyright protection. Like copyright protection, sooner
> or later another programmer comes with an alternative free solution.
> For example, this is happening with LZW (PNG) or MP3 (Vorbis).

Imho copyright could be applied directly to complex algorigthms.
Whenever it becomes apparent that you copied step by step without really
understanding underlying principles and rewriting according to your
own understanding, your could be guilty of plagiarism.
I would tend to find it legitimate to interpret copyright more widely
in some cases, especially during the first few years and when the original
author has published the source code and the plagiarist is apparently
aiming at the same market rather than building an interoperating product.
Some of these conditions have been formulated
in the context of sui generis right discussions (Manifesto).
Patents don't seem to work well for that purpose.
Writing a description and a set of claims is wasteful and misleading.
Even when the algorithm is very complex and based on a lot of work, the
patent claims will still tend to be very broad and trivial.
This is the case at least for many compression patents such as Stac
ISDN HiFn.  I didn't check the MP3 patents, but the fact that the Ogg
Vorbis people are being threatened by Thomson lawyers also suggests that
they are much broader than the widest copyright would allow.

> Unfortunately, the fact that they are file formats can put high barriers
> of entry to compenting solutions. For this reason, there should be
> exclusion of infringment when the most important economic value
> of the invention is compatibility rather than functionality.

Right.  This is where the "interface copyright" problem comes back in.
Which leaves the space in which software patents could seem somewhat
justified really tiny.

> By the way, an interesting URL explaining why compatibility
> is important:
> http://joel.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$117
>
>
> I highly recommend you Joel Spolsky's web site.

Thank you.
Maybe all that should go into the next version of my page on sui generis
approaches

        http://swpat.ffii.org/stidi/basti/

-phm