Re: [Patents] EU Commission: Competitive and efficient European enterprises

[Roland Orre <orre@nada.kth.se>]

On Wed, 2003-04-09 at 18:04, Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> Roland,
>       I have a Master's Degree in computational physics.  I probably
> know much more about software, and have developed more software, than
> you.  It is just another field of engineering subject to the laws that
> protect engineering inventions, patents.
> 
> Greg

Interresting. The fact that you are familiar with computational physics
could explain why you don't see much difference between physics and
software, and of coarse, at some [still for us unreachable] level
they are similar.

The problem is that you are arguing all the time about why software is
equal to other patentable fields.

You can see it like this: Patents are good and bad. It's a mix of both.

Bad because every patent has some bad effects on the society, with a
varying degree for different areas. Within many areas these bad effects
can be accepted, within other areas not.

Good because patents can protect big investments in development and
research which could have been hard to implement within most economical
systems. Thus being an incentive for development.

You have claimed that people like me are against the patent system.
This may be true to some extent, but it can still be accepted within
many areas due to the way our economical system works.

In other areas it can not be accepted, because the harmful effects are
too big and the beneficial effects too low.
Software is one of these areas.

        Best regards
        Roland