🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991Mar11.102629.2@minerva.inesc.pt> fmhv@minerva.inesc.pt (Fernando Manuel Vasconcelos) writes:
  ....
  Yes. This is another serious problem. Of course it can be solved but again
  at the expense of ma[n]y dollars.
  ....
  The mechanism for enforcing a fair system seems to me more and more expensive
  as this discussion goes on.

Indeed, and welcome to reality.  You will notice that RMS talked about
raising a million recently.  I really don't think we can do anything
effective to oppose the vested interests who support the current
patent system.  A majority of people will be convinced by the advertising
of drug companies and software companies that:

 "Wonder drugs" are the result of allowing vast corporate and
    family fortunes to accumulate, and protecting them by devices
    like drug patents;
 America (or fill in your favorite nation) must support their software
    industry through such protective devices as patents.

I'm serious.  I think most people who have even heard of the issues
really believe this.  And I don't think I want government (ANY
government) to try to "enforce a fair system" even in the narrow area
of protection of inventions.  Do you trust those guys?  A short quote
from Dorothy Denning's article in this month's CACM, on a related
matter:

   "Although Neidorf was freed of all criminal charges, he was not free of
    all costs.  The trial cost of $100,000 was incurred by him and his
    family."

This may be a misunderstanding, but I don't think so.  Lose your
family's life savings or go to jail!  And despite finding that the
government's case was very weak, the judge didn't dismiss charges, but
merely declared a mistrial.  The poor sucker can still be coerced and
intimidated by threats of prosecution.  (I don't condone everything
Neidorf did, but it doesn't appear that he committed anything that
could deserve the name of 'felony' -- maybe he deserved a night in
jail for receiving stolen property worth about the price of the paper
it wasn't written on!)  The government can (and evidently does) do
that to anyone with shallow enough pockets and no friends in high
places.  Ain't our legal system great?  Ain't the patent system great?
Grrrrrrrrrrr!!

--

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  Lee Story (lee@wang.com) Wang Laboratories, Inc.
     (Boston and New Hampshire AMC, and Merrimack Valley Paddlers)
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