[Gllug] amongst the maddness

[David Damerell]

On Saturday, 15 Sep 2001, sean at uncertainty.org.uk wrote:
>one of the things I love about (whatever the most generic term is for
>free software / open source) is that there is such diverstity of
>licenses most of which are less restrictive than the GPL.

The only thing the GPL restricts is your ability to restrict the
freedom of others; that's perfectly sensible if you actually have free
software as a goal.

>The patent system was created at a time when people had largely given up
>on reasearch - as soon as they developed new technology somebody copyied
>it and you had no way to regain your costs
>I don't see any reason why the same principles shouldn't apply to
>software - what is the conceptual difference between a machine and a
>program.

There isn't a principle here at all (contrary to the rhetoric of the
IPR lobby); it's a practical consideration that we need to reward
research, even at the cost of the ability to build on the work of
others immediately.

It doesn't apply in software because research costs are very low
(compared to, say, the pharmaceutical industry); development costs are
high in comparison to research costs (so 'just' cloning a product is
quite hard); and the market is very fast moving - this means both that
the normal term of a patent greatly restricts the ability of others
to build on your work, and that it's not necessary; simply being first
to market with a product is sufficient to reap great rewards.

Have you really noticed progress in software being retarded by the
lack of software patents? No? Then we don't need 'em.

-- 
David Damerell <damerell at chiark.greenend.org.uk> flcl?

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