Guardian Unlimited | Online | Soft sell

A discussion by RMS on software pattents, something he is very opposed to. I'm not sure how I feel about it - given I have 3 of them. :) - Mostly I think it is cool for the recognition factor, i.e., ego I guess. "Hey... I've got 3 patents, that's cool." - He is against them, in my understanding, because they take software copyrights a step further. Not only can't you copy the software, but you can't even re-engineer it. So for instance I see a program that does some cool thing - and I can't copy it, but I don't want to pay for it. Or I want to add some stuff to it and decide - we'll its not Open Source, so I can't get the source, so I'll just rewrite it and add in my stuff. With a copyright you can do that. With a patent you can't. A patent says you can't even write something similar. So... given an "open source" / "free software" philosophy, you are pretty hosed.

I'm kind of in the middle. I'd probably rather have something be open or free then it copyrighted without a pattent. The main thing again is probably ego. We work hard on our stuff, and it is sometimes irritating if someone just goes and rips it off. I'd rather give it to them, letting them update it and keep the copyright that says I wrote it. :) - But then again, I don't get paid for the use of software, I get paid for writting it. So I don't have all the business concerns. But thinking about this stuff lately has made me start thinking about contributing to some open source stuff. We'll see...