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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)

#21

Post by garbowza »

systems wrote: post #18
garbowza wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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!

I hope that is what would happen as well. Unfortunately, humans are, as a group, most strongly motivated by money.

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

#22

Post by foonamefoo »

garbowza wrote: post #16
ardit33 wrote: 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).

Phamaceuticals wouldn't collapse; half of their current expenditures go into advertising, half into research. But that only accounts for half of the actual research costs: the rest mainly comes from the NSF. We could just have the NSF give them a 100% handout and cover all the research.

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

#23

Post by derefr »

nickb wrote: post #7
ijoshua wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was an apostrophe, but since Arc doesnaEURXt support Unicode, fuck it.

What kind of keyboard do you use that has an actual apostrophe on it? Or do you go out of your way to use Markdown (or something) to clean your input before submitting? Just curious...

I'm scared to think, but there might be a Firefox extension that embeds Word into text fields...

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

#25

Post by anaphoric »

Yawn...

First of all it's not PG's patent. Its Yahoo's.

Second, if anyone ever goes after you on a software patent, celebrate! It means you are a success. It means you have deep enough pockets to be considered worth the trouble.

Third, as much as software patents are a joke, see them for what they are: A little side show for the lawyers and MBAs to leach off the big boys and feel like they are holding important cards. Hackers are wasting time/energy if they get too worked up about software patents.

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

#26

Post by marcus »

foonamefoo wrote: post #22
garbowza wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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).

Phamaceuticals wouldn't collapse; half of their current expenditures go into advertising, half into research. But that only accounts for half of the actual research costs: the rest mainly comes from the NSF. We could just have the NSF give them a 100% handout and cover all the research.

Get your stats right, do your research before you comment.

Pharmaceutical research in the US 2005 34.8B USD federal funds 41M USD. Thats less than 0.12%.

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf07335/

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

#27

Post by anaphoric »

nickb wrote: post #15
ardit33 wrote: 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.

Actually just ignoring it is probably the best thing to do.

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

#28

Post by bayareaguy »

anaphoric wrote: post #25

Yawn... First of all it's not PG's patent. Its Yahoo's. Second, if anyone ever goes after you on a software patent, celebrate! It means you are a success. It means you have deep enough pockets to be considered worth the trouble. Third, as much as software patents are a joke, see them for what they are: A little side show for the lawyers and MBAs to leach off the big boys and feel like they are holding important cards…

Patents may be a joke to hackers but they aren't to the investors who fund them.

Of course if you don't need investors for what you're doing in order to be successful then more power to you.

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

#29

Post by halo »

garbowza wrote: post #16
ardit33 wrote: 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'm not against patents per se (they're a necessary evil, I believe that shortening their length and/or adding a forced licensing clause could improve them), but the problem is that software patents too often do the opposite than what they're intended - stifling innovation in a rapidly evolving market - and the patent system is currently too-often used on things that are likely to be reinvented and become popular independently rather than the actual purpose which is share knowledge with the world in exchange for a temporary monopoly on your invention.

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

#30

Post by jacobolus »

nickb wrote: post #7
ijoshua wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was an apostrophe, but since Arc doesnaEURXt support Unicode, fuck it.

What kind of keyboard do you use that has an actual apostrophe on it? Or do you go out of your way to use Markdown (or something) to clean your input before submitting? Just curious...

option-shift-] on the Mac does a proper apostrophe.
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