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PG's patent on Continuation Based Web Servers (as used by Arc, Seaside etc)

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Re: PG's patent on Continuation Based Web Servers (as used by Arc, Seaside etc)

#12
Software Patents are a sham.

Software should be copyrighted, but not patented.

I wonder what would be if a writer could patent story lines: "It is like a like a novelist, patenting all action thrillers, that involve a guy saving a girl, who is kidnaped by the bad guys.

Watch out, any other books that have a bad guy kidnaping the girl, can be infringing this patent."

There are many industries that flourish without the needs of patents. How did we end up in this mess?

Re: PG's patent on Continuation Based Web Servers (as used by Arc, Seaside etc)

#13
post #12

Software Patents are a sham. Software should be copyrighted, but not patented. I wonder what would be if a writer could patent story lines: "It is like a like a novelist, patenting all action thrillers, that involve a guy saving a girl, who is kidnaped by the bad guys. Watch out, any other books that have a bad guy kidnaping the girl, can be infringing this patent." There are many industries that flourish without the…

[deleted]

Re: PG's patent on Continuation Based Web Servers (as used by Arc, Seaside etc)

#14
post #2

My god! He's going to sue everyone who answers the Arc Challenge! It's a trap!

Claims 4, 6, 8 and 9 are pretty specific and from a cursory examination of the current challenge solutions none of them work that way. Could it be that at the moment the only system to worry about a lawsuit is Arc? Yahoo (not pg) is the patent holder.

And soon it may be held by the Beast.

Re: PG's patent on Continuation Based Web Servers (as used by Arc, Seaside etc)

#15
post #12

Software Patents are a sham. Software should be copyrighted, but not patented. I wonder what would be if a writer could patent story lines: "It is like a like a novelist, patenting all action thrillers, that involve a guy saving a girl, who is kidnaped by the bad guys. Watch out, any other books that have a bad guy kidnaping the girl, can be infringing this patent." There are many industries that flourish without the…

Sham or not, they're a reality and we have to deal with it. Just ignoring them is not going to solve anything.

>How did we end up in this mess?

Politics, money and special interest is a dangerous confluence.

Re: PG's patent on Continuation Based Web Servers (as used by Arc, Seaside etc)

#16
post #12

Software Patents are a sham. Software should be copyrighted, but not patented. I wonder what would be if a writer could patent story lines: "It is like a like a novelist, patenting all action thrillers, that involve a guy saving a girl, who is kidnaped by the bad guys. Watch out, any other books that have a bad guy kidnaping the girl, can be infringing this patent." There are many industries that flourish without the…

"One thing I do feel pretty certain of is that if you're against software patents, you're against patents in general." http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html

Btw, your writer analogy is a poor one, since prior art exists for that story line and thus it would not be patentable. There are also industries that would collapse without patents (pharmaceuticals for one).

Re: PG's patent on Continuation Based Web Servers (as used by Arc, Seaside etc)

#18
post #12

Software Patents are a sham. Software should be copyrighted, but not patented. I wonder what would be if a writer could patent story lines: "It is like a like a novelist, patenting all action thrillers, that involve a guy saving a girl, who is kidnaped by the bad guys. Watch out, any other books that have a bad guy kidnaping the girl, can be infringing this patent." There are many industries that flourish without the…

"One thing I do feel pretty certain of is that if you're against software patents, you're against patents in general." http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html Btw, your writer analogy is a poor one, since prior art exists for that story line and thus it would not be patentable. There are also industries that would collapse without patents (pharmaceuticals for one).

Because who would pay for RnD if you can't go exclusive at least for a dozen or so years! Well I hope that someone would, that the human social structure have evolved enough to create all what's necessary for it's survival and that the pharmaceuticals industry wouldn't collapse, it would just restructure and medicines will be cheaper!

The sad truth is, I really believe this would what would've happened!

Re: PG's patent on Continuation Based Web Servers (as used by Arc, Seaside etc)

#19
Are software patents evil? Yes, I don't really believe that RnD is software is that much of a big deal, or that costly to justify patents.

For how many years was windows vista tested on real humans before its being release? No, software testers don't count, they ain't real humans!

Re: PG's patent on Continuation Based Web Servers (as used by Arc, Seaside etc)

#20
post #12

Software Patents are a sham. Software should be copyrighted, but not patented. I wonder what would be if a writer could patent story lines: "It is like a like a novelist, patenting all action thrillers, that involve a guy saving a girl, who is kidnaped by the bad guys. Watch out, any other books that have a bad guy kidnaping the girl, can be infringing this patent." There are many industries that flourish without the…

"One thing I do feel pretty certain of is that if you're against software patents, you're against patents in general." http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html Btw, your writer analogy is a poor one, since prior art exists for that story line and thus it would not be patentable. There are also industries that would collapse without patents (pharmaceuticals for one).

I assume pg is referring to http://www.gamespot.com/news/6117964.html when he writes

The one example I've found is, embarrassingly enough, Yahoo, which filed a patent suit against a gaming startup called Xfire in 2005. Xfire doesn't seem to be a very big deal, and it's hard to say why Yahoo felt threatened. Xfire's VP of engineering had worked at Yahoo on similar stuff-- in fact, he was listed as an inventor on the patent Yahoo sued over-- so perhaps there was something personal about it. My guess is that someone at Yahoo goofed. At any rate they didn't pursue the suit very vigorously.

I can't help but wonder if pg thinks the same way about software patents now that there is a very real chance that his own patent could be used against him at the whim of someone at a company he's been publically bad-mouthing for some time.

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