🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <38156@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> jbuck@galileo.berkeley.edu writes:
>
>Of course in some cases the distinction between invention and discovery
>is difficult to draw cleanly.  

Some discoveries are more obvious than others.  If Edison had had a
table of properties for the various materials he'd tested, `invention'
of the light bulb would have been the rather obvious selection of the
one best suited.  Knowing what we know today, what is non-obvious
about the incandescent bulb?  Nothing.

I repeat: there is no difference between invention and discovery.  To
deny the validity of software patents on the grounds that algorithms
are `discovered' and not `invented' is nonsense.  If you choose to
define `invention' as the discovery of something very unlikely to be
discovered, then explain why software inventions should not receive
the same treatment as hardware inventions.

-- 
Dave Sill (de5@ornl.gov)		These are my opinions.
Martin Marietta Energy Systems
Workstation Support