Re: tlug: RMS and Amazon...

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Scott" == Scott M Stone <sstone@example.com> writes:

    Scott> I wasn't aware of all the legal ramifications -- in
    Scott> principle, I support anyone's right to have their
    Scott> source/software/hardware/ideas/whatever as either closed or
    Scott> open source -- sure it's nice if they do open source and
    Scott> everyone has a ball with it, but they still have the right
    Scott> to do what they want to, at least in this[1] country.

Closed source and developer's rights are fine by me, although I think
the former is stupid for most customers and therefore _should_ be
unprofitable for firms (but another stupid customer is born every
minute :-( ).  I support anything that encourages creativity.

But there are two main uses for software _patents_ (as opposed to
copyright) as currently implemented.  (1) Maintaining a large power
advantage for large corporate managements as opposed to developers of
any kind, and (2) extortion by specialist law firms.

They are of very little use to small developers and individual
engineers in large organizations (except to fill in some blanks on
your MBO reports).

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