[Leaplist] FYI, evidence of realities of IP

[Steve Litt]

On Wednesday 17 January 2007 11:59, Damien McKenna wrote:
> A little known fact: the wonderful and ubiquitous bzip2 compression utility
> is a rewrite of an older utility called bzip.  The original bzip used an
> algorithm that was patented by a 3rd party so the offending code was
> replaced, thus bzip2.
> http://www.freshports.org/archivers/bzip/
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bzip2
>
> This is just a tiny, day-to-day example of the fact that IP effects
> everything we do with a computer, especially the software that we write as
> developers.  Despite the intentions of the GPL, the noble goal of living in
> a world free of anti-competitive restraints, and the years of people's
> lives donated to a good cause, we live in a world restricted by laws that
> control what we may and may not do, including the fact that you cannot
> infringe upon someone else's intellectual property (IP) without
> repercussions.
>
> Just food for thought.

On the other side, if I spend 4 months writing a book, shouldn't I be granted 
a monopoly to sell it for at least a few years?

I'm not so sure patents and copyrights are a bad thing, but I'm very sure they 
last waaaay too long. I think a copyright should automatically become public 
domain in 10 to 15 years. Patents maybe 8 -- 5 for drug patents.

Also, as has been stated many times before, the patent office shouldn't grant 
patents to obvious things, business processes, etc. I think maybe software 
should be subject only to copyright, not to patent. 

I once read a half tongue and cheek article about what would happen if 
basketball players patented their moves.

SteveT