Re: [Patents] French high level civil servant warns about spwat danger

[Gregory Aharonian <srctran@world.std.com>]

>[Jean-Michel Yolin] quoted as saying that patents were created to induce
>innovation but that they have been diverted to create minefields and
>neutralize "embarrassing" competitors. Now patent holders send lawyers
>when the competitor is looking for funds and customers.

If Mr. Yolin understood anything about the SCO/IBM case, or IP law in
general, we would have stated something more accurate like:
        .... that COPYRIGHTS and patents were created to induce
        .... innovation but that they have been diverted to 
        .... create minefields and neutralize "embarassing"
        .... competitors.  Now COPYRIGHT AND patent holders send
        .... lawyers when the competitors is looking for funds and
        .... customers.

Which more accurately reflects that there are both COPYRIGHT AND patent
allegations involved with the SCO/IBM case.  Yolin must be in the pay
of copyright lawyers because whereas you can only create minefields
with software patents for 20 years, you can create minefiles with
software copyrights for 100+ years.  Gee, maybe this whole list is in 
the pay of software copyright litigators.

Especially in this case, IBM has more to worry about from the copyright
infringement claims than the patent infringement claims (though it is
hard to be sympathetic to IBM since they were the ones in the late 1960s
to foster the illogic of software copyright, an illogic they later
abandoned mostly for software patents, without correcting the damage
they caused).

Greg Aharonian