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Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don't Make Sense

muktware.com

61–70 of 92 posts

Re: Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don't Make Sense

#61
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My respect for Linus just grew 10-fold!" Why? He just bashes Java using strong language and not providing any arguments. This could get my respect if Java were some kind of sacred cow that nobody dares criticize. This is not the case AFAIK.

I accept that this quote doesn't give his reasons. However, I have to agree with him. My reasons are that Java is slow and bloated.

[deleted]

Re: Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don't Make Sense

#62

Totally agreed. Compete on products or results, not on legal process

Wouldn't that be nice. Now consider the case of a pharmaceutical company that has to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a new drug and get it past FDA. If there is no IP protection would you as the CEO of this company spend that kind of money on innovating when the resultant drug could be copied a week after it appears on the shelves? In this case you would be competing on product alright - exactly the…

Pharmaceutical and other physical patents make sense and appear to work. But arguing that software companies won't innovate without patents ignores the fact that software companies did innovate without patents, for years. And software patents obviously haven't been working: see Microsoft's patent on "if not", among other things.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don't Make Sense

#63

Totally agreed. Compete on products or results, not on legal process

Wouldn't that be nice. Now consider the case of a pharmaceutical company that has to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a new drug and get it past FDA. If there is no IP protection would you as the CEO of this company spend that kind of money on innovating when the resultant drug could be copied a week after it appears on the shelves? In this case you would be competing on product alright - exactly the…

http://christianengstrom.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/an-alterna...

Re: Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don't Make Sense

#64

"... and that's the reason you have to have a patent lawyer because the language makes no sense. In US it’s technically English but it’s not really English. It’s like using English words but there are different meanings to them. There is a whole different set of rules about what things mean when they do a patent application." Well guess what - that is not unusual when everyday words migrate into a technical area and…

While I certainly agree that it can seem naive, when it comes to law it is taken to such an extreme that it's almost to the point that definition of "is" isn't "is" anymore.

In patents 'a' is plural.

Just try and write a patent in Word - it grammar highlights the whole document!

Re: Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don't Make Sense

#65

What website is that? Did anyone else go to its homepage ( http://www.muktware.com/ ) and notice an unhealthy obsession with Linus Torvalds and exclusive interviews?

I love how the three repeated images of him on top are links, but the GIANT one underneath isn't.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don't Make Sense

#66

Linus: "I don't actually know the details. I mean Java I really don't care about. What a horrible language. What a horrible VM. So, I am like whatever, you are barking about all this crap, go away. I don't care." My respect for Linus just grew 10-fold!

My respect for him remains the same because when you multiply infinity by any number what you get is still infinity!

Well, if you multiply by zero it's undefined... (this is nothing to do with Linus or the quote)

Re: Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don't Make Sense

#67
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My respect for him remains the same because when you multiply infinity by any number what you get is still infinity!

Well, if you multiply by zero it's undefined... (this is nothing to do with Linus or the quote)

haha....yeah I didnt think of that when I made my profound statement.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don't Make Sense

#68
post #30
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you confusing Java the language with the actual JVM? On your last paragraph, you pretty much described what the JVM is in my perspective.

There is no proper separation of concerns in the JVM. The JVM instruction set has instructions like `invokevirtual` and `invokestatic`, `invokeinterface`, which are Java specific features. The JVM also knows the concept of classes and methods and fields, even though those abstractions should be defined at the language level, not at the VM level (a Lisp or Forth-like stack machine needs different abstractions). The da…

I see. This makes more sense now that you've explained it. I'm now even more compelled to dive more into JVM details.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don't Make Sense

#69
post #43

> I think patents probably work better in certain areas than they do in ours. Software patents? No. Process patents? No. They just don't make sense. Only if you ignore the fact that congress is composed of lawyers, who have a large self-interest in preserving the current Byzantine system.

Top (when I wrote this) comment on this thread is, on close read, virtually content free.

Right, pointing out that conflict of interest means that software patent law is here to stay is content-free.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don't Make Sense

#70

> I think patents probably work better in certain areas than they do in ours. Software patents? No. Process patents? No. They just don't make sense. Only if you ignore the fact that congress is composed of lawyers, who have a large self-interest in preserving the current Byzantine system.

How many patent lawyers are there in Congress? I'd be surprised if it's more than one or two.

> How many patent lawyers are there in Congress?

How did you get "patent lawyers" from my statement of "lawyers"?

It doesn't take much to recognize that folks in the legal profession are going to be pro-legal structure.

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