Re: False assumptions re: patents

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Article #74635

#74635

From: Tim Bradshaw
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1991 15:29

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>>>>> On 6 Mar 91 17:05:36 GMT, waters@nddsun1.sps.mot.com (Mike
>>>>> Waters) said:

> In article <7421:Mar606:04:0391@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
> brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:

>>LZW compression takes under five lines of APL.

> THe entire description of the world takes only five lines of APL.

> So what?

> I still don't see the "patent police" inspecting every line of code I
> write.

But that doesn't make it legal, any more than murdering someone and
not getting caught makes it legal.  Whether you get caught is not
relevant to whether you think the system is just, which I think is
what this discussion is about?  On the other hand, unenforcable laws
are probably not a good thing, and software patents may well turn out
to be just that -- another argument for doing something about them I
think.

--tim
Tim Bradshaw.  Internet: tim%ed.cstr@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
UUCP: ...!uunet!mcvax!ukc!cstr!tim  JANET: tim@uk.ac.ed.cstr
"...wizzards & inchanters..."

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<GUMBY.91Mar3113623@Cygnus.COM> <881@nddsun1.sps.mot.com> <7421:Mar606:04:0391@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <898@nddsun1.sps.mot.com>

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From: tim@cstr.ed.ac.uk (Tim Bradshaw)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: False assumptions re: patents
Message-ID: <TIM.91Mar7152958@kahlo.cstr.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 7 Mar 91 15:29:58 GMT
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