On Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 03:53:14PM +0000, Mark Evans wrote:
bankrupted him. Now consider IBM patenting a method for automatically moving a search dialog when the search highlights a term hidden beneath the dialog. Patents are used by people who already have plenty of money
Also you end up with the senario where old ideas gain patents simply because they use a computer...
and the clever patent lawyers can run rings around the patent examiners - the days of Einstein working in a patent office are long
They don't need to be that clever, since patent *examiners* might be better named "rubber stampers". The only exception which comes to mind is Russia where getting a patent granted by trickery is actually considered *fraud*.
The current storm about digital rights management is, as far as I can see, pretty much irrelevant because it's provably impossible to implement. It
But many of the people involved and those making the decisons simply do not understand that. What they want is literally "magic". (I don't mean the Clarke kind either.)
The decisions on introducing IP legislation is made at the behest of firms like MS. They're on to a loser eventually but it buys them some
Most commonly the movie and music publishing business. MS is just happy to go along for the ride...
time to dominate the market even more aggressively by using law bought to order.
The American political system is undoubtedly as corrupt as anything on this planet and FWIW their legal sytem sucks too in that the more money you've got, the better chance you have of winning your case.
Unfortunatly most Americans don't even realise there is a problem, either domestically or the way the US treats the rest of the world. -- Mark Evans St. Peter's CofE High School Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109 Fax: +44 1392 204763