Subject: Re: free software as a delivery vehicle for lisp From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 22:01:03 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3226946480134694@naggum.net> * Thomas Bushnell, BSG | But this also means that when an invention would be made public *anyway*, | the public interest is getting screwed by granting the patent. How would the _invention_ be made public "anyway"? Why would someone _want_ to make something public if the public just takes it and leaves him with all his expenses and development cost? Considering the often enormous costs of bringing something brilliantly simple to market, the whole point of the patent system is to make it possible to make simple and obvious inventions that are only simple and obvious after the fact. The public does not "own" whatever people come up with, but I guess that your basic attitude is precisely that the public has a _right_ to take the inventions and the work of the individual, sort of in exchange for free food or something. /// -- 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