Re: [Patents] newsscan: Software patent limits 'go too far'

[Jean-Baptiste Soufron <jbsoufron@free.fr>]

On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 22:37:45 -0400 (EDT)
Russell McOrmond <russell@flora.ca> wrote:

> > Is this all a bit of playing word games?  Sure, but EPO was given
> > this power by politicians too ignorant to understand software, and
> > too lazy to deal with this issue themselves.
> 
>   If experienced people like those in this forum cannot agree on the
> nature of software (and clearly we do not!), how can you expect
> outsiders like politicians to?  Your constant name calling against
> people you disagree with also doesn't help the situation at all.

On top of that, as a jurist, I must add a very simple question ?!? 

Why should it be to computer scientists to deal with the patentability
of softwares? Do you want pharmacy industries to deal with patentability
of drugs and school teachers to deal with their liability when they take
care of children? Is is fair to let car drivers deal with how to get a
driving licence?

Nobody is leazy. Problems are simply complicated and solutions can't
appear in just a few years. 

Can you only imagine that it needed 80 YEARS to gradually accept the
principle that someone fired without any reason should obtain remedies
from his employer...

What we see now is just the normal process of the birth of legislation.
People have opposed views, some are fair and some are unfair but they
tend to get closer in the end until everybody find a good in-between
solution. It's just not the job of computer scientists to write law and
it's not the job of jurists to understand computer science. Both
interact on each other and the only thing needed is communication and
explanations.