

We want software patents abolished - ajennings
http://www.askforit.com/2017/software-patents-abolished.html
AskForIt is my startup, by the way.  :)
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andrewcross
In the case of software, a patent doesn't promote innovation, it hampers it.
Allowing a company to sit on it's laurels for 20 years because they patented
something as simple as swiping left to right to unlock a screen is absurd.

This isn't to say that companies shouldn't be able to protect their products.
Trademarks are very valuable and help prevent cheap knockoffs, but patents
aren't being used to protect their products against knock-offs. They are being
used to force other companies to find complicated workarounds for a simple
problem.

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mikecarlucci
And software has copyright protection as well. Putting aside the length of
copyright protection, which is a separate problem, copyright doesn't protect
functional elements.

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JoachimSchipper
A comment that is [dead], but worth seeing:

    
    
        ajennings 1 hour ago | link [dead]
        
        AskForIt is my startup, by the way. :)

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swombat
Huh... why is that comment dead?

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jpadvo
Strange. Does anyone know if upvotes can resurrect a dead comment? In any
case, I just gave it one in hopes it'll help..

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TheAmazingIdiot
I have showdead turned on, due to 'interesting content' that is occasionally
found there.

I do think the worst is when a user deletes a comment after it has had 2 or 3
responses. Doing so removes much of the value of the 'children' comments.
Perhaps, it's something pg could look into. Deletion of a lone comment (no
children) isnt that big of a deal.

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andrewvc
I believe snopes had the final word on this

<http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.asp>

This change, sadly, needs to come from industry, with big $ behind it.

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ajennings
I agree with most of that Snopes article. Internet petitions (especially email
ones) do not have a very good track record. Then again, there have been cases
where online, grassroots sentiment has snowballed into something that affected
the real world, no?

So the goal of AskForIt is to re-invent the online petition, Web 2.0 style,
using all the modern social networking tools available, to help get some
things to the tipping point that wouldn't get there otherwise.

Surely there is some level of public support for abolishing software patents
that would get the attention of the politicians, so we're hoping people will
decide that it doesn't really hurt anything to join on and see how high we can
get.

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sixtofour
I seriously doubt that the public is even aware of the issue, or that they are
able to understand the issue.

Without that public pressure the only thing influencing Congress is lobbying
and campaign donations. Big IP is very strong and assertive.

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jwecker
Considering that I've worked with dozens and have known hundreds of serious
computer professionals and have yet to meet a single one that supports
software patents (including many who have them!), and I suspect that I may
never meet such a person- I have to agree that there is some public support
for this issue.

Admittedly, we're a small percentage of the general population, but we are
certainly influencers. I believe that askforit.com is specifically trying to
overcome the issues that snopes talks about (and even if they don't, it's
silly to think that that will remain the "last word" on the issue- it's
relevant for late-90's early 2000's technology). Secondly, if you were to pull
'Big copyright/DMCA' and 'Non-computer-related IP like pharma' out of 'Big IP'
you'd be left with a peppering of small disreputable companies (that are
really lawyers and not technologists) that actually attempt to make a little
bit of money off of software patents, and big industry that use them as a form
of mutually-assured-destruction - who are more or less ambivalent toward them
but have to have them as insurance.

So in short, I'm not totally disagreeing, but instead of the implied "tiny
group of HNewsers vs. Every big corporation" I think it's more along the lines
of "pretty much everyone that does anything serious with computers vs. general
apathy and a small smear of vested interests."

What would prove me wrong: Is there even a single currently
reputable/established company big enough to lobby congress that has software
patent royalties as a significant revenue source? If so, are there several of
these? I'll be impressed if someone can think of one... but is there really
some hidden computer software industry perhaps deep in the bowels if the
fortune-500s that I somehow just never hear about that actually use software
patents in the intended way [i.e., not for insurance against competing patent
claims]?

EDIT: I'm responding to you and andrewvc at the same time- sorry if it
countered arguments that you actually didn't make.

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madflo
I guess that going out of the patent business in the US will be a battle as
big as the one that we are currently fighting in Europe in order to keep
software patents out of the EU.

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kanetrain
I was not even aware this was an ongoing battle in Europe. Going to have to go
do some reading. It's a real problem here in the US. As I understand, patents
are supposed to encourage innovation... but software patents in the US have
gotten so out of hand that I think they actually sniffle innovation and
productivity.

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shareme
a better way:

If we convince US congress that they are losing tax dollars for each software
patent awarded the change in law may happen quicker.

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Benjo
Congress doesn't really care about tax dollars so much as individual
congressmen care about campaign contributions. So you'd have to convince
congressmen that they'll get more contributions by changing the patent system
than by keeping it the same.

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superppl
Tell them they are losing key votes and getting a huge smear campaign coming
their way.

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d3x
Its very easy to get upset at Lodsys for being scummy patent trolls but what
about companies like Facebook

see: <http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=3365>

IMHO they are just as bad because if they filled for these patents then
eventually they will decide to enforce them.

