[ale] What do y'all think about Microsoft's new war?

[jknapka at kneuro.net (JK)]

James P. Kinney III wrote:

> I don't give half a rats a$$ about software patents and I'm real close
> to deciding that patents in general are a very bad idea for humanity.
> Only a bunch of stuff shirt twits like the Brits could have come up with
> a more intrusive concept than the patent.

IMO it's more the fact that patent protections can be extended
more or less indefinitely that causes the problem.  Patents -- even
on software -- that expire after, say, two years, would be fine,
I think.  I mean, I can see that having to worry about your invention
being appropriated by a competitor before you even have large-scale
production under way would be a disincentive to bringing an item
to market in the first place.  And unlike the Shipstone Corporation,
most inventors can't make their products violently resistant to
reverse engineering...

IANAL, etc.

-- JK

-- 
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be
dismissed without evidence." -- Christopher Hitchens