[ILUG] Re: ILUG sends s/w patents briefing document to Irish MEPs

[Joseph Kiniry]

Hi,

On 22 Mar, 2005, at 7:47, Paul O'Malley wrote:

> Gavin McCullagh wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Joseph Kiniry wrote:
>>
>>
>>> On 21 Mar, 2005, at 21:03, Paul O'Malley wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Joseph Kiniry wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Also, how often do you believe that serious modern "for profit" 
>>>>> software development does not require significant capital?
>>>>>
>>>> I believe the following to be examples of serious modern and for 
>>>> profit software development.
>>>>
>>>> (A) Iona
>>>> (B) Mandrakesoft
>>>> (C) Novell/SuSE
>>>> (D) Redhat
>>>> (E) Sage (not the system administrators guild :))
>>>>
>>
>>
>>> Ok.  But you still did not answer the question.  You gave me a list 
>>> of some companies, some of which focus on FOSS-based technologies, 
>>> and others which to my knowledge do not.
>>>
>>> Are you suggesting that none of these companies required significant 
>>> capital to develop the software that is the core of their 
>>> businesses?
>>>
>>
>> I think what Paul is pointing out is that while these companies do 
>> require
>> significant capital they do not require software patents to 
>> recoup/justify
>> it.  Your point (as I understood it, please correct) was that software
>> patents are needed to recoup/justify this capital.  The above 
>> companies
>> seem to be some of many contradictory examples.
>>
>> Gavin
>>
>>
> They are just companies that use large amounts of capital. They do not 
> need patents to make the majority of business happen, you need a 
> feasible economic model and customers. Some may be in possession of 
> patents but most of their business is in the delivery of customer 
> requirements.
>
> That is all.
>
> Regards,
>
> Paul

But I was not asking that question either.  (Note: I am a mathematician 
as well as a computer scientist, so I try to be very precise in my 
language.  If I say X I mean X, not F(X). <g>)

David had earlier said:
 > I certainly do, just check out the oil cartel patent portfolio some
 > time...   It's just with software the effect is particularly nasty and
 > visible because there's still significant capital required for
 > real-world engineering, unlike software development (and of course
 > unless you begin to need significant capital to overcome patent
 > licensing constraints...  This is how patents can be used to raise the
 > barrier to market entry for new players by established players.

I am arguing to the contrary: I suggest that significant capital is 
still required for real-world *software* engineering, regardless of 
software patents.

I never argued that one cannot build and run a business without 
leveraging the borked patent system.  I obviously believe this to be 
the case, as I have done it myself five times.

Joe

P.S. List admins: your "downloadable version" of the list archive at 
http://www.linux.ie/pipermail/ilug/ is empty.  I suggest you 
double-check your pipermail install.  Also, how about local search 
function, as one cannot guarantee the periodicity of Google crawls of 
linux.ie.