Subject: Re: free software as a delivery vehicle for lisp
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net>
Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 10:23:13 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3226904609253326@naggum.net>

* Rahul Jain
| Patenting something should _increase_ competition, unless the
| invention is so far advanced that no one else in the world can think
| of any improvements to it.

  Few people seem to understand that the purpose of a patent (which
  actually means "open", much to some people's surprise) is to strike a
  balance between making an invention public and protecting the commercial
  value of said invention.  The whole point is to grant he who publishes
  the invention a reward for doing so.

  All the (reasonable) opposition to the patent system is based in stupid
  patent grants and the nearly impenetrable language in which claims are
  written, which is everything but patent.

///
-- 
  In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none.
  In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.

  Post with compassion: http://home.chello.no/~xyzzy/kitten.jpg