[Patents] Philosophers!

[epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk (Edward Avis)]

On Thu, 10 May 2001 patents-request@liberte.aful.org wrote:

>   5. European arguing for patenting pure math formulas (Gregory Aharonian)

>From: Gregory Aharonian <srctran@world.std.com>

>Subject: [Patents] European arguing for patenting pure math formulas
>
>    As an antidote to some of the non-scientific thinking appearing
>here, what follows are the abstract, and one paragraph from the
>conclusion, of a journal article from a European philosopher that pure
>mathematical algorithms should be patentable,

Since when were philosophers the people to ask when deciding matters of
economic policy?

Show me a report from an economist that argues it would be beneficial,
on balance, to grant patent monopolies on mathematical discoveries and
algorithms.

Also, I don't think any set of arguments is more 'scientific' than
another.  Matters of government policy are not usually decided in a
'scientific' manner; they necessarily involve compromise.

-- 
Ed Avis
epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk