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

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

On Wed, Oct 22, 2003 at 11:45:52AM +0200, Jean-Baptiste Soufron wrote:
> 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. 

The one category of people who should have no say is jurists.  Their
role is syntax, not semantics.

   This is a technological and economic matter, and jurists want more
patents only so that they can levy even more money out of the economy.
Though jurists can have a necessary role in social life, their over
expansion in modern society (number multiplied by 2.5 in 20 years in
France) is nothing but a social cancer.

  When both technicians and economists agree that sofware patents are
bad for the economy and the technology, would the jurists be kind
enough to acknowledge and SHUT UP.

Bernard

-- 
         Non aux Brevets Logiciels  -  No to Software Patents
           SIGNEZ    http://petition.eurolinux.org/    SIGN

Bernard.Lang@inria.fr             ,_  /\o    \o/    Tel  +33 1 3963 5644
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~lang/  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  Fax  +33 1 3963 5469
            INRIA / B.P. 105 / 78153 Le Chesnay CEDEX / France
         Je n'exprime que mon opinion - I express only my opinion
                 CAGED BEHIND WINDOWS or FREE WITH LINUX