Re: [Patents] That Article

[Russell McOrmond <russell@flora.ca>]

On Thu, 2 Dec 2004, PILCH Hartmut wrote:

> >   Take my belief that software code is a form of law.  
> > http://www.flora.ca/russell/drafts/code-is-law-speedgeek.html
> > 
> >   Should those laws (that code) that govern the public be public in
> > nature, or private/industrial in nature?
> 
> They probably shouldn't be copyrighted either.

  Not all software code governs the public, and thus would not need to 
have the same level of accountability and transparency as public code.

  This is also a debate I don't want to try to have in my country of
Canada where Crown Copyright exists, and thus there is an issue with
licensing of government authored works.  This is one of those areas where
the PCT policy of the United States is more advanced than Canada.  I don't
know the policies of other countries and whether they put government works
automatically into the public domain.


> And here it is important to specifiy the parameters "fast, cheap, narrow" 
> as the mainstream IP ruleset of the future, a spec on which the patent 
> system badly fails and copyright performs quite well, both in software and
> other useful arts.

  I agree.

  This is also not anti-patent for other useful arts given what "fast,
cheap, narrow" would mean in different arts would be different.  

  Hardware, being physical/tangible, will always have a per-unit price
associated with it.  The manufacturing of standard hardware is such that
"fast, cheap, narrow" can be accomplished through patent law with
compulsory licensing, a copyright concept that would be a form of
government imposed RAND.

  There is quite a bit from copyright law that should be brought into
patent law, including concepts such as "fair use" and compulsory/statutory
licensing.

-- 
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 Have you, your family, your friends (, your enemies) signed the
 Petition to the Canadian Parliament for Users' Rights in Copyright?
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