Re: [Patents] removal of copyright protection ?

["Nick Fleming" <Nick@bigfatpanda.fsnet.co.uk>]

Greg,
    One of the major problems as I see it
with a patent-only approach, is that it still
leaves a large proportion of software legally
unprotected, especially if the law is changed
so that fewer patents get issued.

    Larger companies do not always innovate as
much as smaller ones because they often don't 
need to, so increasing maintainance fees would just
maintain the status quo which might be good 
for them, but not for the economy as a whole i think.

> Why not try thinking about some alternative yourself?  I don't
> think one exists, but am always curious to see new proposals.

    I do think about the alternatives - everytime I write
some new software :-). I think if there was an easy answer
to all this it would have been sorted out long ago. The fact 
that the debate has been going on for well over half a 
century or more shows just how complex a problem it is. I 
personally think that allowing copyright protection (however
weak) has been the best attempt at a solution so far.
As to the rest.. I'm still not convinced.

regards,

Nick.