On Thu, Aug 28, 2003 at 11:29:01AM +0100, Stuart Herbert wrote:
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> Well, that *is* how other fields of human endeavour have to work.  They just 
> seem to have found a more balanced way to dealing with it.

No, other fields work on implementations, not ideas or concepts. You patent a
certain _implementation_ of a combustion engine, not the *idea* or *concept*
of a combustion engine.

The first is what I totally agree on, implementations can be protected. The
latter I totally disagree on, concepts/ideas have no need for protection.
 
> But to simply say that there shouldn't be any form of protection for IPR isn't 
> a position I'm willing to agree with.

For software, copyright and licensing are two strong IP protection measures
that are both firm and without high costs. And you can even choose to close
your software (no open source) if you want to make sure that no-one illegally
steals/uses it.

Wkr,
	Sven Vermeulen


-- 
 ^__^   And Larry saw that it was Perfect.
 (oo)                                      Sven Vermeulen
 (__)   http://www.gentoo.org              Gentoo Documentation Project