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

[Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang@inria.fr>]

The netbot strikes again

as stupid as ever ...  does not yet pass the Turing test

Anyone else would know that the difference is that one is unlikely to
infringe copyright by accident, while it is likely to happen for
patents.

but the netbot was created to confuse new readers on this list, not to
help.

Question: who paid to set up this netbot called Aharonian

Other question:  can it be turned off.

Bernard

On Mon, Jun 16, 2003 at 02:22:20PM -0400, Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> >[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

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