

WIPO boss: the Web would have been better if it was patented - yesbabyyes
http://boingboing.net/2011/10/08/wipo-boss-the-web-would-have-been-better-if-it-was-patented-and-its-users-had-to-pay-license-fees.html

======
greenyoda
I don't think that the web would have even been patentable. HTTP is
essentially FTP without persistent sessions. HTML was based on SGML. And
hypertext existed before it was used in HTML (1960s). So there seems to be too
much prior art there for it to be patentable.

Also, the demise of Gopher, an early competitor of the web, gives us a hint of
what might have happened if the web had been patented. From Wikipedia's Gopher
article:

"In February 1993, the University of Minnesota announced that it would charge
licensing fees for the use of its implementation of the Gopher server. As a
consequence of this, some users were concerned that a licensing fee would also
be charged for independent implementations. Users were scared away from Gopher
technology, to the advantage of the Web, which CERN disclaimed ownership of.
The University of Minnesota later re-licensed its Gopher software under the
GNU GPL."

Source: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)>

~~~
SaltwaterC
Did you ever bother to read the HTTP vs. the FTP specs? "Remotely close" rings
any bell?

------
rickdangerous1
Wow. You see some asinine things on the internet from time to time but thats
in a category all of its own.

------
SamReidHughes
Well this isn't inflammatory political choir-preachery that should be flagged.

