tlug: Patents again

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

>Companies in Favor of Software Patents 
>
>    IBM 
>    Intel 
>    Microsoft - Prior to the Stac v. Microsoft verdict. 
>    Taligent 
>    SGI - SGI's being in favor of software patents is a little hard to
>       understand.

Apologies to those who thought this thread was off-topic, but the current
Wired has this quote (p.69) by Andy Grove, Chair of Intel, where he gives
an excellent argument against patents (though maybe not intentionally):

"Technologically there are independent developments occuring, so that even
if one area gets derailed, another development takes its place. Thomas
Edison made a bunch of inventions, but do you really think life would be
different today if he hadn't lived? Most discoveries in science take place
in several places in the same general time frame - like packets on the
Internet: You can lose some packets on one path and the alternative path
will still deliver the information."


Darren

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