🚀 go-pugleaf

friedman@nutrimat.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Noah Friedman) writes:
>   Software patents will not largely fall into the hands of individual
>people.  They will aggregate in large corporations who will then have a
>monopoly on ideas and will grow by forcing their employees to sign away
>their rights to anything they produce.

I agree; this is why software patent boycotts deserve attention _now_,
not once a bunch more patents are granted and the lawyers have trotted
out. If you think boycotts are effective (I don't), then you should want
to cut the damage potential now before it really gets out of hand.

>   In a similar fashion, I don't believe that interface copyrights deserve
>consideration.  The actual designing of most interfaces is simply not that
>difficult.  What most of that investment goes into is *coding* the
>interface.  If two companies independently write code to implement the same
>interface, they haven't really stolen anything from each other.

This is simply not true. Period. Most of the expense of user interface
development is in the testing it takes to create a really good
interface. Writing the code is a very minor part of the expense. Xerox
spent millions of dollars doing user testing and CHI research; Apple has
spend hundreds of millions. The actual coding probably amounts to 10% or
less of the cost of writing a really good user interface.

>   Whatever the commercial world is doing, I wouldn't call it "sharing."
>Interface copyrights and software patents are a farce, and it's appalling
>that our government lets anyone get away with it. 

I have to agree here. I think software patents are evil. I think the
application of the current copyright laws to user interfaces are evil.
However, I also think providing zero protection for innovation is also
evil (this is where I break from the LPF). I support some modified
system of short-term protection (two years is probably the right
time-frame; enough time to beat everyone else to market with the new
innovation and recover the costs of innovation, while not so long that
reuse by others is stifled). Until such a system is developed, I hope
that current software patents and user-interface copyrights are
disallowed and the laws are changed to prevent new ones from appearing.

I agree with Noah Friedman that reuse of interfaces is very important,
but I think people are being very naive in believing that a total lack
of protection for interfaces will not result in decreased development.
Some protection is necessary, but too much is definitely a bad thing.

--John

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John L. Coolidge     Internet:coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP:uiucdcs!coolidge
Of course I don't speak for the U of I (or anyone else except myself)
Copyright 1991 John L. Coolidge. Copying allowed if (and only if) attributed.
You may redistribute this article if and only if your recipients may as well.