[Discuss] The America Invents Act

[invalid at pizzashack.org (Derek Martin)]

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 08:42:42AM -0700, Hsuan-Yeh Chang wrote:
> 1.? To me, trying to convince the Congress to get rid of software
> patents is no less crazier than my suggestions.
 
It isn't:  Your suggestion goes against both logic and human nature.
There will always be a small contingency of engineers who will go
through the trouble to get patents due to some idealism or
entrepreneurial leanings; but most engineers will do a simple
cost-benefit analysis (probably without realizing they are doing it)
and dismiss the idea immediately, IF it even occurs to them they have
a patentable idea (RMS touches on this also).  The percentage of
exceptions will always be very small, because the cost is high and the
benefits are minimal to an individual patent holder.  

By contrast, there's already a substantial contingency of both
individuals AND businesses that want software patents abolished.  That
merely needs to reach critical mass to make it happen.  Change is
effected on a small scale in this country in this fashion all the
time; there are numerous well-known examples of it happening
throughout U.S. history on a nationwide basis (slavery, women's
sufferage, racism reform, etc.).  Neither thing is easy, but getting
congress to change the law is much easier than battling human nature.

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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