🚀 go-pugleaf

The fundamental question we have to answer is this:  if software
patents are to be disallowed, what alternative mechanism would you
propose to encourage people to publish new algorithms?  (I'd
rather argue the question using RSA as an example; its originality,
novelty, and utility are beyond question.  The Hayes patent may
not qualify as new -- but the very difficulty of resolving that
issue makes it a bad hook upon which to hang the policy question.)

I'm perfectly serious.  In an industry where fortunes are being
made, and where many vendors have gone overboard on copy protection
because of piracy, how are we to encourage publication, if not
by patents?  The issue of abuse, either statutory (i.e., a 17
year period, which is too long for software) or in the Patent Office
(granting dubious patents due to lack of expertise) are, I would
say, separable questions.