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A comment on VisiCalc: Information from Its Creators, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. Parent comment

Re:VisiCalc: Information from Its Creators, Dan Bricklin and... by EricE on Thursday August 19, 2021 @10:33AM (#28234297)
Patents do serve a useful purpose - for example they were considered so important to fostering innovation that they are built into the US Constitution, which is pretty lightweight with what is in there, all other things considered.

The problem is law hasn't kept up with how they are being abused, or as with Disney and Copyright - special interests have succeeded in perverting the original goals to tilt the balance of power into their favor.

We need to wrestle control back, not toss the whole system.

Speaking of the US Constitution again, very well reasoned arguments as to why patents were considered so valuable in Federalist 43: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-10-02-024...

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Re:VisiCalc: Information from Its Creators, Dan Bricklin and... by ddingus on Thursday August 19, 2021 @11:55AM (#28235439)
Personally, I feel both "limited time" and "exclusive right" need very serious reconsideration in light of:

how rapidly software can develop, and or can be lost

, and

unlike material innovations and constructs, software with many contributors ends up being greater than any one contribution, and this being true for all users, both potential and actual

, and

the need for systems, consisting of and or containing software, to interoperate, be serviced and preserved.

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