[ILUG] Free Speech Rights For Software Authors - last days for letters

[kevin lyda]

On Fri, May 14, 2004 at 01:30:04PM +0100, Colm MacCarthaigh wrote:
> Sure; but so are cameras, and in fact you can't even use software
> without electronics. Is the patentability of electronics now a civil
> liberties issue?

i can also patent paper, pens, book binding, desks, chairs and lamps.

can i therefore patent legal defenses?

laws and legal arguments are just a series of instructions and queries
to a judge and jury.  they're just algorithms to be executed by the
court and shared among legislators and the legal profession.  and the
legal profession uses all those things to publish and research legal
arguments.

in addition, computer programs exist outside of computers.  i've run
code on architectures that didn't exist when the code was written.
and i've read code that can't be compiled on any computer.  cs textbooks
are littered with real and made up languages to illustrate ideas.

> Does the fact that I can't go and build a digital
> camera from scratch impede my rights to document and publish photos
> from a protest march? Of course not.

what if titan corporation had a patent on publishing digital photos on
websites?  it could then use that patent to squash all those pictures
from iraq (which features several of its employees).

more and more governments are outsourcing services to private
corporations.  patents and copyrights are tools they can use to block
speech and actions that their governments can't.

kevin

-- 
kevin at ie.suberic.net  ~  "you're either with us or against us." --dubya
iraq: vietnam again?  ~  in that simplistic world-view progressives and
a new lbj selected -  ~  liberals are "us" while bush and bin laden are
"looney bush junior"  ~  "against us."
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