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Software will not be patentable in New Zealand

nzherald.co.nz

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Re: Software will not be patentable in New Zealand

#111

Post by guard-of-terra »

loceng wrote: post #109
spodek wrote: post #3

"Commerce Minister Craig Foss said today that following industry consultation he had decided to remove the patentability of software from the Patents Bill, which is currently before Parliament." If anyone is going to support Free and Open Source Software, it's going to be a guy named Foss. The government asked its citizens their thoughts "a recent poll of more than 1000 Kiwi IT professionals found 94 per cent wanted…

Motivations of the last 6% are probably relating to trying to create a business that won't just be copied by someone who has access to resources faster than them, e.g. entrepreneurs and business folk..

When you create a business you're not applying for patents, and when you apply for patents you're not creating a business.

Re: Software will not be patentable in New Zealand

#112

Post by itsybitsycoder »

ekianjo wrote: post #53
nikatwork wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are asserting that extreme poverty and the absence of welfare or assistance does not lead to crime? I find your position dubious.

Yeah. Have you ever heard of peer to peer assistance? you know, that thing called charity that used to exist before governments started to take care of it themselves? How about Mother Theresa? How about the Red Cross? About about the religious associations who live on donations only? In your little world everything comes from the government, as well as your ideology it seems.

[Mother Theresa] felt that suffering would bring people closer to Jesus. Sanal Edamaruku, President of Rationalist International, criticised the failure to give painkillers, writing that in her Homes for the Dying, one could "hear the screams of people having maggots tweezered from their open wounds without pain relief. On principle, strong painkillers were not administered even in severe cases. According to Mother Teresa's philosophy, it is 'the most beautiful gift for a person that he can participate in the sufferings of Christ'."

The quality of care offered to terminally ill patients in the Homes for the Dying has been criticised in the medical press. The Lancet and the British Medical Journal reported the reuse of hypodermic needles, poor living conditions, including the use of cold baths for all patients, and an approach to illness and suffering that precluded the use of many elements of modern medical care, such as systematic diagnosis. Dr. Robin Fox, editor of The Lancet, described the medical care as "haphazard", as volunteers without medical knowledge had to make decisions about patient care, because of the lack of doctors. He observed that her order did not distinguish between curable and incurable patients, so that people who could otherwise survive would be at risk of dying from infections and lack of treatment. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa)

As a Canadian, I think I strongly prefer our government-provided healthcare to the Mother Theresa version.

Re: Software will not be patentable in New Zealand

#113

Post by ajuc »

sigzero wrote: post #79
ajuc wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what's wrong with that?

They are not human. I agree there should be some for of animal rights for them...but they are not human so they do not get "human rights".

This is still net benefit. Call the law FooBarBuzz if you prefer, I don't care as long as it is a good law.

Re: Software will not be patentable in New Zealand

#114

Post by alan_cx »

ekianjo wrote: post #29
te_chris wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[partisan alert] I wouldn't go too far on that. If you're poor and unemployed here you probably don't feel like the govt. are working for you all that much.

Welfare-society-partisan I guess? The best thing a government can do is not run into debt and avoid charging massive taxes to employees and companies working in their country. That way, business can thrive better and jobs get created in larger number, so it should be a good thing if you are poor and unemployed. Countries ridden with welfare are not doing TOO well currently. Most countries in Europe, US, Japan. All de…

Software patents and copyright are a form of welfare for business.

Re: Software will not be patentable in New Zealand

#115

Post by grecy »

SeanDav wrote: post #17
lancewiggs wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm continuously amazed by all of the major political parties here in New Zealand who keep using logic and facts instead of merely political stances. Our process of making laws is open, listens to the people as well as lobbyists, and yet allows room for policy differences.

NZ makes some great laws (this is one of them) but it makes a few dodgy ones as well - like trying to give Chimpanzees human rights. Sorry I brought that one up but is one of those laws that has always just made me say - "What the fuuuuuc....."

> but it makes a few dodgy ones as well - like trying to give Chimpanzees human rights.

Hilariously, everyone replying to you has missed the point.

NZ has so many things fundamentally right they actually have time and money to debate and discuss giving more thought to the treatment of animals.

Meanwhile, America is stuck bickering about basic healthcare, gay rights, gun control, abortion and education for HUMANS.

Re: Software will not be patentable in New Zealand

#116

Post by grecy »

ekianjo wrote: post #56
rimantas wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nordic countries are ridden with wellfare and are doing quite OK, I'd say. The problems Greeks and others are having are not related to wellfare.

Well welfare has a threshold effect. Nordic countries have very small populations to take care of. You'll see that countries where welfare becomes an issue are usually larger ones in the dozens of millions. But I wouldn't put all the nordic countries in the same basket. Last I know Sweden is not doing too well compared to Finland.

Australia, at 23 million, has one of the most liberal welfare systems in the world [1]. The economy is doing just great.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment_benefits#Australia (Everyone gets money for nothing, forever)

Re: Software will not be patentable in New Zealand

#117

Post by lostlogin »

sage_joch wrote: post #6
spodek wrote: post #3

"Commerce Minister Craig Foss said today that following industry consultation he had decided to remove the patentability of software from the Patents Bill, which is currently before Parliament." If anyone is going to support Free and Open Source Software, it's going to be a guy named Foss. The government asked its citizens their thoughts "a recent poll of more than 1000 Kiwi IT professionals found 94 per cent wanted…

This sounds suspiciously like a government that works for its people.

Don't be fooled - we're selling off our assets as you speak. But hey, we can buy shares in them, so the thing I partly owned I can pay money for and partly own it again.

Re: Software will not be patentable in New Zealand

#118

Post by lostlogin »

stephen_g wrote: post #63
zmmmmm wrote: post #46

It would be very cool if a major software house set up or moved their development shop to NZ so as to be free to develop and test their products in a patent-free environment. Sort of like we have tax havens ... software development havens? It would be even cooler if a few different countries did this and set up a sort of, software patent-free economic zone.

The problem is that any company that sells to people in the US can have their product banned from import if it is found to infringe on patents there.

I have to ask (I do t understand this stuff), how do you ban software from import - login to NZ server, pay, download? Would a banner saying that people in the US are forbidden from doing this be enough to get the seller off the hook?

Re: Software will not be patentable in New Zealand

#119

Post by lostlogin »

Matsta wrote: post #67
qu4z-2 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, also you can't get another notice within 28 days. And if I recall correctly, you have to get three notices within 9 months. So basically if you manage to spend less than 1/3rd of your time "On Notice" you should be sweet as. DISCLAIMER: IANAL EDIT: Actually, fence-post error. The correct figure is ~2/9ths, as penalties trigger on the receipt of the third notice (so we can't count its period).

I think everyone forgot about the 3 strikes law here. None of the big ISP's enforce it AT ALL. I've heard a couple of small ISP's kick a couple of people off back when it was first introduced but since then there's been nothing. Considering most of my friends here all torrent everything off The Pirate Bay (They don't use private trackers :p), I don't think I've heard of a single person I know get in trouble. Telecom…

My father got a letter from his small ISP saying that they won't be playing along the the three strike thing, and for some reason even if they wanted to they couldn't be sure which of their customers was the infringer. Heavily suspicious, but not 100%. So carry on, we got your back. He is just outside Tauranga.

Re: Software will not be patentable in New Zealand

#120

Post by sigkill »

sigzero wrote: post #78
ekianjo wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, maybe I took your comment the wrong way. Sorry about that. The way you wrote your comment gave me the impression that you were saying animals are not worthy of compassion, but if that's not the case then it's all good.

Compassion...sure. Human rights? No.

Human rights for Chimps. Definitely no. If you give them rights, you need to make sure they abide by the same laws that humans abide by. If one 'tells' a chimp to steal something, will the human be punished? He could as well say, "I told him to jump off the cliff, but he didn't do that right? Why are you punishing me for this". I mean, I know this sounds ridiculous but humans have known to be clever to exploit every possible loop hole in wording or spirit of the law - case in point, the patent system.
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