Re: [tlug] Patents gone wrong?

[<burlingk@example.com>]

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Message: 10
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 19:40:04 +0900
From: "Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>
Subject: Re: [tlug] Patents gone wrong?
To: "Tokyo Linux Users Group" <tlug@example.com>
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	<d8fcc0800608250340j977a37y2efb386ccc2fa67d@example.com>
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On 25/08/06, Evan Monroig <evan.monroig@example.com> wrote:
<snip>

>Yes, the patent system in the US is very broken, at least as it
>relates to software. I personally consider software patents a Bad
>Thing.

>Steve, as an economist, is there an argument for software patents
>being necessary? Is it just the current implementation that is broken,
>or the design, or the whole idea of software patents?


Does anyone know of a good site to read on patent issues?  How about the DMCA?
The political issues are getting to the point that I am more and more liking the idea of just staying in Japan for a while.  Things back home are getting insane.  I keep hearing things about the DMCA, but have never actually seen it in writing.  I would like to read and see what it actually says.

From what I hear though, it illegalizes a host of things a host of things that other long standing laws in the US protected.  If half of what I hear is accurate, a single law that doesn't have much support among the general populous has overturned two hundred years of court rulings and written law.

This may sound like an exageration, but the issue is not software alone.  If you look at the big picture, it is getting pretty grim.