Re:'I was exploited by Google'
by jodrellblank on Friday April 10, 2009 @10:46AM
(#556115)
No I don't fully approve of them. That doesn't mean I want to scrap them entirely, or that I have a better replacement for them.
I do think it's different - the music industry copyright covers "a song", wheras the software industry patents "a feature". If you asked a band to write you a song, there's no chance they would accidentally come out with music that sounds like Never Gonna Give You Up, the same lyrics, and a singer who sounds like Rick Astley such that someone could sue them for being a close imitation.
But if you asked an isolated small development company to develop a program of significant size and ability to be useful and saleable, there's a strong chance they will include some feature somewhere that (arguably) infringes on an existing patent. e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software_patents - The patent relates to a progress bar. Filed in 1989. Probably a new thing in 1989. Not in 1999. Certainly not in 2009.
I do think it's different - the music industry copyright covers "a song", wheras the software industry patents "a feature". If you asked a band to write you a song, there's no chance they would accidentally come out with music that sounds like Never Gonna Give You Up, the same lyrics, and a singer who sounds like Rick Astley such that someone could sue them for being a close imitation.
But if you asked an isolated small development company to develop a program of significant size and ability to be useful and saleable, there's a strong chance they will include some feature somewhere that (arguably) infringes on an existing patent. e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software_patents - The patent relates to a progress bar. Filed in 1989. Probably a new thing in 1989. Not in 1999. Certainly not in 2009.