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

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

>   This is not the birth of legislation we are witnessing, but various
> attempts to correct a recent mistake in legislation.  

Yes, but correcting is part of the process :-)

There is no perfect law. It's always important to add, change, review
it...

> Had this area of
> policy went through adequate accountable and transparent public policy
> development I seriously doubt the problem we are seeing now would have
> happened.

Then something else would have happened... 

>   It wasn't computer scientists or democratically elected policy
>   makers
> that made software patentable.  

I agree with you...

> It was lawyers, judges and software patent
> special interests ("software manufacturing" firms, engineers in the
> manufacturing sector who didn't want to recognize a separation of
> software used in manufacturing from software used outside) that
> essentially pushed new laws (as if they were "clarifications") and/or
> re-interpreted old laws in radically new ways.

It was not in one day... it took many years and the new law was made
without the help of jurists! 
 
>   Computer scientists are now having to work to try to correct this
>   error
> by getting politically involved to a level that they shouldn't have
> to.  

100% agree with you except, computer scientist now have to take part in
the process of law making. But they can't hope to do it alone :-)

> We should be writing code, not having to lobby so strongly to correct
> laws and/or interpretations of laws.

Democracy is only useful when people try to use it...