Re: [fsl-discuss] Re: [Patents] The politics of software over-protection -- moving forward..

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

>   There is a huge difference between a fiction novel, sheet-music, a
> patent applications or a marriage license (all just human-readable
> information), so why can there not similarly be differences between
> different types of software (machine readable information) which express
> entirely different types of things in entirely different contexts?
> 

Software can be written so that a single program can be used
for many different purposes. That is to say.. a single software
patent can be used to cover more applications and 
industries than say a patent for lawn mower blades.

This is especially noticable with common standards
such as GIF, XML, JPEG, MPEG, MP3 where
patent's can cover many industries and applications.

Copyrightable material can be embedded within 
software, making it fairly unique in being both
eligable for patent and copyright protection
simultaneously.

So software IS a special case, and should be
treated as such. 

Regards,

Nick Fleming.