Trivial patents *not the problem* (was: Re: [ILUG] Re: ILUG sends s/w patents briefing document to Irish MEPs)

[Timothy Murphy]

On Mon 21 Mar 2005 14:52, Colm MacCarthaigh wrote:
> A lot of the idealogical arguments are absurd to the point of stupidity.
> Software patents in and of themselves are no less stupid than patents
> generally. You can try and convince yourselve otherwise, that it's
> "Software idea patents" and so on, but really all patents are on ideas -
> we've simply enjoyed an industry unencumbred by patents.

On the other hand, you could go to the other end of the spectrum
and say "Why not patent mathematical theorems?".
Software seems to me to lie somewhere between mathematics and plumbing.

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
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s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland