So apparently software patents are legal in Germany now?
(Found via slashdot): http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2010/05/german-high-court-declares-all-software.html
All patents are evil.
Software patents, even more so.
In software, the rate of innovation is already extremely high, so the argument that patents encourage development is
moot, and the cost of “inventing” software is close to zero. You don’t need to make any huge investments or buy a
lot of materials, all you need is a computer and an interesting problem.
Not to mention that software is a fairly
new field, so there’s bound to be (and already have been) a lot of parallel discoveries. Having some kind of gold
rush get-there-first-and-own-it-forever climate is horribly damaging not just for the individual developers, but for
the entire human race.
Additionally, software really isn’t much more than applied math. Can we patent algorithms
now? Will we be able to in ten years? Where do you draw the line?
I don’t get it. Are they corrupt? Stupid? Do they intentionally want to ruin the world a little bit? Is it some kind of power trip? Why does anyone think this is a good idea?
Also, it seems the flattr buttons stopped working. :-D
ps. Woo, RDR!
