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Well the trees took Sony Bono out, so that congressmen
isn't pleading that case anymore this side of the Styx.
Again, I'm not for patents in the W3C specs. I think
the W3C will have to be pretty choosy about what specs
it chooses to work, though, if the patents keep coming
up. Software and algorithm patents usually are silly.
In fact, I'd like to see examples where that isn't the
case because I can't think of any but it has never slowed
the MPEG folks down. While it's trendy to slap the
US around here, the Europeans, Canadians, Australians,
Japanese, Germans, and so on make fair dinkum using
USPTO processes.
Follow the money, not the paper. These are international
corporations.
len
From: David Megginson [mailto:david@megginson.com]
Bullard, Claude L (Len) writes:
> BTW, I agree that the copyright laws are becoming ever more absurd.
> Apparently so did Ginsburg but stated rightly, it is not their job
> to set policy for Congress. OTOH, anyone who thinks that the
> international systems for patents will vanish in an act of good
> will toward the Internet or for the particular good of open source
> software simply isn't in business.
Note that patents on software and algorithms are not that common
outside the U.S., though I understand that the E.U. was considering
them. The U.S. just got a little silly about the whole thing --
unfortunately, it's the one market that's too big for the rest of us
to ignore. I wonder how long it will be until the USPTO starts
granting patents for book and movie plots.
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