7 ms·

Defending your app from copies and clones

100 points by kawera 9y ago

magnetic 9y ago
I was a bit disappointed with the content of the article. On the style, the generalization "Only assholes get patents" turned me off quickly. But on the content itself, there wasn't much in there that related to the title of the article "Defending your app from copies and clones": the author talks about copyrights, and trademarks (not patents, because apparently it's only for assholes), but explains how little use it is: am I supposed to be encouraged or discouraged to follow those paths? Then the rest seems to be an exercise in despair, convincing you that there's nothing you can do anyways and you're screwed. I ended the read a bit perplexed, as I wasn't able to squeeze any substantific marrow.
- vodkhang2 9y ago
  Would have to say for most technology products, there are not much you can do. It is better if you keep your heads down and try to improve different aspects of your apps. And try best not to compete directly with big players
- jeremy7600 9y ago
  He was just distilling the real world implications of the 3 paths of IP in a succinct way. I agree with him on all points, and he is accurate in his statements. He's inviting you down from a pedestal you may have put you and your software on: if you create something great, expect to be copied, and expect it to be considered a standard feature when someone else does it. Because really, thats how "features" are born. You can trademark your name for it, which will make it harder to advertise the feature as the same. I think this piece was intended as an eye opener, and a blunt one, because the world isn't going to soften its blows on you.
- samastur 9y ago
  You obviously did, you just don't like it. Everything in the article was related to the title, but I think your expectations were wrong. Instead of getting a list of things you can do to protect your app from copies, the author goes through the list of possible tools and explains why they don't really work. However, this also means you can do the same thing to others without much fear so it really comes down to who can learn, adapt and create more quickly.
  - magnetic 9y ago
    > You obviously did, you just don't like it. Not really - It's just that I don't feel like I learned much: I already knew about the challenges he mentions. Whether I like it or not is irrelevant. I was really interested in something "new" or "original" about it. That was my (perhaps misguided) expectation. > Everything in the article was related to the title, but I think your expectations were wrong. Instead of getting a list of things you can do to protect your app from copies, the author goes through the list of possible tools and explains why they don't really work. Yes, perhaps I shouldn't have set my expectations from the title "Defending your app from copies and clones", where I thought I was going to learn how to defend my app from copies and clones. I think that's one reasonable interpretation of the title, although I can see how someone can argue that he never promised he'd give any solutions or original ideas in the title. It could indeed have meant "Defending your app from copies and clones: a lost cause". Those last 3 words I added do make it a better match for the content, don't you think?
whalesalad 9y ago
"Only assholes get patents." Marco rubs me the wrong way. Blanket statements like this are not meaningful. What the post is saying is: there is nothing you can do. At the end of the day it doesn't matter who does it first, it matters who does it best. Do it best and you'll win. Very clickbaity title. This could have been a tweet (and it was: https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/966721199052013568 https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/966721199052013568)
- makecheck 9y ago
  If patents were usefully enforced and practical to obtain, it would matter who files first because that’s how patents work. The $20,000 part of patents (and additional legal fees) are a problem because we are clearly at the point economically where tons of people who need stronger protections will never have the resources to obtain those protections. You can’t do that when it’s impossible to sell anything for more than 99 cents.
  - 0xCMP 9y ago
    And we can't expect everyone to pay more for many of these things when there is so much inequality, lack of wage increases, student debt, etc. etc. etc. Of course I go ahead and pay $50/year for ulysses or $20 for each Things 3 app, but my sister won't pay $3/m to iCloud on her filled up iPhone nor $5/m to Spotify or Apple Music to listen to music.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- soneca 9y ago
  With an interesting reply: "Coincidentally, superior execution is also the most effective way to steal a good idea."
- choward 9y ago
  > This could have been a tweet Right. Everyone should give their content to third party if they want to share it.
GuiA 9y ago
This reminds me of when the game 2048 came out, and became hugely popular. It was mostly a clone of the game “Threes”, released a few months prior, which while popular was less so because it was iOS only whereas 2048 could be played freely in the browser. Here’s the developer’s statement at the time: http://asherv.com/threes/threemails/ http://asherv.com/threes/threemails/ The press and public opinion was mostly on the side of the Threes developer, perhaps because they were already fairly well respected in the indie game dev community; see for instance https://www.wired.com/2014/05/threes-game-design https://www.wired.com/2014/05/threes-game-design I mostly agree with Marco’s advice; but if you have your peers’ trust and approval, calling out your copycats seems like it might work in your favor (by bringing attention to your product for people who only know the copy). Or rather, let your hardcore fans call out the copy cats for you, and be brutally candid in your reaction - the devlog format of the Threes developers’ response was perfect for that.
vortico 9y ago
Even if the content of this article is 99% my opinion, it's written in a trashy way and makes me want to disagree with it. I'm going to educate the public to avoid macro.org
makecheck 9y ago
All good points but I would add that you should never make it easy for people to copy valuable things from you if you depend on being unique. Unfortunately what’s easiest for programmers is pretty easy to copy. For example, any ordinary file in an app bundle is dead simple to copy (and unfortunately the most straightforward APIs for using data from code will assume that files are plainly located in the bundle, which I always felt was a bit of a design oversight). One fairly low-effort defense against copying is to use your program to reassemble valuable data from parts. For example, instead of having easily-stolen complete files in your bundle, store a variety of bits and pieces that only the program knows how to assemble correctly. You can even create a technically-corrupt/invalid binary file and then have your program restore the bits that you know you removed. Obviously this is an extra pain to do but if you really need to reduce the chance of losing to a competitor then it may be worth the trouble. (Note that this isn’t foolproof either, as clever people can still figure out what a program actually does; it’s just way better than doing nothing.)
lettergram 9y ago
> Only assholes get patents. They can be a huge PR mistake, and they’re a fool’s errand: even if you get one ($20,000+ later), you can’t afford to use it against any adversary big enough to matter. Okay - Google patented their search. It's enabled them to stop the whole industry. Lets not go too far.
- nugi 9y ago
  Is a sucessful asshole still an asshole?
vtange 9y ago
For the longest time now I've always held a bit of bias towards closed-source software, but over time I'm slowly realizing that open source is probably the way to go. If you look at the world as if it was running on a tech tree in a video game, making closed source technology only forces people to retrace your footsteps(re-research the tech, if you will) or worse, find a better alternative (leaving you and your creation in the dust). By open-sourcing, you effectively stake a flag with your name on it in the tech tree and incentivize people to use your creation as a foundation for future techs. Sure, people will be free to use copies of your work at will, but they still have to give credit to you, and won't be trying to do things differently. And that's not even mentioning that open-source stuff generally has a PR-boost compared to closed-source. If you make something closed-source, you will always have to worry about the appearance of an open-source competitor. I have seen closed-source stuff be completely eclipsed by open-source alternatives once the latter reached a critical level of quality. I mean think about it: Unreal Engine 4 is open source, would anyone start a closed-source project to compete against it? All the best minds will naturally ask you, 'Why not just work on UE4?' Yes you can fork it, but the public will always turn to the original of the fork unless your fork achieves something really different in a good way. So in a way, open-source is the most asshole-way you can do things cause it shuts down any idea of a copy/similar alternative to your work.
- meheleventyone 9y ago
  UE4 isn’t open source. You get source access with the license but it’s quite restrictive on what you can actually do with it. If you tried to setup a competing engine based on a fork of it you would quickly find yourself being sued. Godot would be an example of an open source game engine.
  - vtange 9y ago
    Thanks for the clarification. I believe UE4 is still a good example of how the PR-bias towards anything 'open-source'. All it took was a few headlines with "Unreal" and "open-source" and I naturally grouped it with the likes of Blender and Godot.
jaxondu 9y ago
There is no opinion of him on Apple implementing features from third party apps into it's platform. Would be interesting since he's such a big Apple fan.
- mankash666 9y ago
  And by his logic, Apple is filled with assholes. Who go so far as to sue others over rounded rectangles.
- oddevan 9y ago
  Remember that he also wrote Instapaper, the key feature of which was copied by Apple: https://marco.org/2011/04/30/lion-safari-reading-list https://marco.org/2011/04/30/lion-safari-reading-list
whoisjuan 9y ago
"Only assholes get patents"... Everyone would get and enforce patents if it weren't so hard and expensive to obtain them... I think saying don't get software patents is terrible advice... Of course, don't go and patent a mediocre interaction or technique, but definitely, pursue a patent if you have worked hard on researching and developing something that is key to your business and that could be used by a better established and wealthier competitor to take a market advantage.
- oldcynic 9y ago
  Would they? The few times I've had a conversation with people in software on the topic, the conclusion has been they shouldn't exist. At all. I'd venture to suggest that most software patents are the obvious way of doing something. Even having read some attempts to justify them I see no merits in patents for XOR cursors, online auctions or shopping carts.
notadoc 9y ago
> Defending your __________ from copies and clones Fill in the blank, and the same lessons apply. Any idea, project, business, app, website, article, podcast, TV show, media production, procedure, product, art, creation, etc are frequently copied and cloned. And he's right, ultimately nobody cares. Sometimes a copy or clone is better than an original. Sometimes a copy or clone is much worse, but ends up successful because of positioning, luck, marketing, or savvy. Perhaps it's better to think of the risk of being copied or cloned as part of the risk of business and creation. It just comes with the territory.
mankash666 9y ago
I guess Marco really really LOVES assholes. His whole career revolves around Apple/iOS, a company legendary for it's frivolous patents & history of enforcing them vindictively when the competition's execution poses a threat. How are copyrights or trademarks ANY different? Together, they constitute essential tools in the knowledge/service economy. Demonizing patents but favoring the other two is ignorance on Marco's behalf - no one wants frivolous patents clogging the patent office, courts or legal departments of companies. Apt advice would be to carefully research recent verdicts and legislation around patents, and only apply for ones that merit the designation (yes - this is very subjective).
- repsilat 9y ago
  Trademarks are quite different to the other two -- they protect consumers as much as they protect producers.
- moogleii 9y ago
  Maybe it was just me, but I got the sense the target audience of his piece was individual or small teams. Hence, "even if you get one ($20,000+ later), you can’t afford to use it against any adversary big enough to matter." These comments citing Apple and Google with their effective use of patents as some sort of counter argument seem to have missed the mark. Those guys are certainly able to afford $20k, and they can certainly afford to take on any adversary big enough to matter.
Invictus0 9y ago
Article body completely fails to address the task set forth in the title. Don't waste your time.
landryraccoon 9y ago
If one of your potential exit strategies is acquisition, patenting your technology makes sense. Even if he's right that a startup can't afford to defend it's patents, if Amazon/Facebook/Google/Apple acquires you your startup is potentially 10x more valuable to them because they can definitely afford to defend the patent.
gnicholas 9y ago
> You can publicly call out a copy, but you won’t come out of it looking good...These disputes are best kept private, or not fought at all Interesting take, considering how Marco has called out both Pocket (formerly Read It Later) and Readability as having copied features that he claims to have created first. "Weiner systematically copied almost every major Instapaper feature over the first few years of Instapaper’s existence", from https://marco.org/2013/02/21/the-first-read-later-service https://marco.org/2013/02/21/the-first-read-later-service and "Over the next few months, they continued adding mostly Instapaper-like features to their service.", from https://marco.org/2011/11/16/readability https://marco.org/2011/11/16/readability Perhaps his recent comments reflect how well his prior callouts were received? EDIT: curious to know why this was downvoted. It wasn't meant as a dig at all—I was pointing out that Marco has experience with callouts and might have relevant expertise that many people lack. I would personally be very interested to hear his experience went dealing with those issues.
- Cyberdog 9y ago
  Don't know how much it will help, but I upvoted you. I used to like Marco, but after following him a while and noticing inconsistencies of principle like this, it got to me. (That, and when he said in a podcast that he didn't use SQL joins when building Tumblr because he doesn't like them. Trying to think about how he could have possibly accomplished that makes me shudder.) I can give him the benefit of the doubt that perhaps his perspectives have changed with age or experience, though. All that said, I upvoted the OP too, because as much as I don't like the guy, he's not wrong here.
aeorgnoieang 9y ago
I stopped following Marco years ago because I didn't like the tone of his writing, but this wasn't anything like what I remembered, or what I was prepared to read based on other comments here. It was clear, well-written, and not incendiary like I expected.
paulsutter 9y ago
Only assholes go around trying to enforce patents, especially as a business model. But if you don’t get any patents, you’ll be really vulnerable to these assholes > Only assholes get patents. They can be a huge PR mistake, and they’re a fool’s errand: even if you get one ($20,000+ later), you can’t afford to use it against any adversary big enough to matter.
- criddell 9y ago
  I don't think I would have a problem with patents except for two things: * the patent office seems to have a policy of grant-by-default * the term is way too long for software patents Grant 3-5 year patents and I think most of my objections would disappear.

100 points by kawera 9y ago

I was a bit disappointed with the content of the article. On the style, the generalization "Only assholes get patents" turned me off quickly. But on the content itself, there wasn't much in there that related to the title of the article "Defending your app from copies and clones": the author talks about copyrights, and trademarks (not patents, because apparently it's only for assholes), but explains how little use it is: am I supposed to be encouraged or discouraged to follow those paths? Then the rest seems to be an exercise in despair, convincing you that there's nothing you can do anyways and you're screwed. I ended the read a bit perplexed, as I wasn't able to squeeze any substantific marrow.

vodkhang2 9y ago
Would have to say for most technology products, there are not much you can do. It is better if you keep your heads down and try to improve different aspects of your apps. And try best not to compete directly with big players
jeremy7600 9y ago
He was just distilling the real world implications of the 3 paths of IP in a succinct way. I agree with him on all points, and he is accurate in his statements. He's inviting you down from a pedestal you may have put you and your software on: if you create something great, expect to be copied, and expect it to be considered a standard feature when someone else does it. Because really, thats how "features" are born. You can trademark your name for it, which will make it harder to advertise the feature as the same. I think this piece was intended as an eye opener, and a blunt one, because the world isn't going to soften its blows on you.
samastur 9y ago
You obviously did, you just don't like it. Everything in the article was related to the title, but I think your expectations were wrong. Instead of getting a list of things you can do to protect your app from copies, the author goes through the list of possible tools and explains why they don't really work. However, this also means you can do the same thing to others without much fear so it really comes down to who can learn, adapt and create more quickly.
- magnetic 9y ago
  > You obviously did, you just don't like it. Not really - It's just that I don't feel like I learned much: I already knew about the challenges he mentions. Whether I like it or not is irrelevant. I was really interested in something "new" or "original" about it. That was my (perhaps misguided) expectation. > Everything in the article was related to the title, but I think your expectations were wrong. Instead of getting a list of things you can do to protect your app from copies, the author goes through the list of possible tools and explains why they don't really work. Yes, perhaps I shouldn't have set my expectations from the title "Defending your app from copies and clones", where I thought I was going to learn how to defend my app from copies and clones. I think that's one reasonable interpretation of the title, although I can see how someone can argue that he never promised he'd give any solutions or original ideas in the title. It could indeed have meant "Defending your app from copies and clones: a lost cause". Those last 3 words I added do make it a better match for the content, don't you think?

whalesalad 9y ago

"Only assholes get patents." Marco rubs me the wrong way. Blanket statements like this are not meaningful. What the post is saying is: there is nothing you can do. At the end of the day it doesn't matter who does it first, it matters who does it best. Do it best and you'll win. Very clickbaity title. This could have been a tweet (and it was: https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/966721199052013568 https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/966721199052013568)

makecheck 9y ago
If patents were usefully enforced and practical to obtain, it would matter who files first because that’s how patents work. The $20,000 part of patents (and additional legal fees) are a problem because we are clearly at the point economically where tons of people who need stronger protections will never have the resources to obtain those protections. You can’t do that when it’s impossible to sell anything for more than 99 cents.
- 0xCMP 9y ago
  And we can't expect everyone to pay more for many of these things when there is so much inequality, lack of wage increases, student debt, etc. etc. etc. Of course I go ahead and pay $50/year for ulysses or $20 for each Things 3 app, but my sister won't pay $3/m to iCloud on her filled up iPhone nor $5/m to Spotify or Apple Music to listen to music.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
soneca 9y ago
With an interesting reply: "Coincidentally, superior execution is also the most effective way to steal a good idea."
choward 9y ago
> This could have been a tweet Right. Everyone should give their content to third party if they want to share it.

GuiA 9y ago

This reminds me of when the game 2048 came out, and became hugely popular. It was mostly a clone of the game “Threes”, released a few months prior, which while popular was less so because it was iOS only whereas 2048 could be played freely in the browser. Here’s the developer’s statement at the time: http://asherv.com/threes/threemails/ http://asherv.com/threes/threemails/ The press and public opinion was mostly on the side of the Threes developer, perhaps because they were already fairly well respected in the indie game dev community; see for instance https://www.wired.com/2014/05/threes-game-design https://www.wired.com/2014/05/threes-game-design I mostly agree with Marco’s advice; but if you have your peers’ trust and approval, calling out your copycats seems like it might work in your favor (by bringing attention to your product for people who only know the copy). Or rather, let your hardcore fans call out the copy cats for you, and be brutally candid in your reaction - the devlog format of the Threes developers’ response was perfect for that.

vortico 9y ago

Even if the content of this article is 99% my opinion, it's written in a trashy way and makes me want to disagree with it. I'm going to educate the public to avoid macro.org

makecheck 9y ago

All good points but I would add that you should never make it easy for people to copy valuable things from you if you depend on being unique. Unfortunately what’s easiest for programmers is pretty easy to copy. For example, any ordinary file in an app bundle is dead simple to copy (and unfortunately the most straightforward APIs for using data from code will assume that files are plainly located in the bundle, which I always felt was a bit of a design oversight). One fairly low-effort defense against copying is to use your program to reassemble valuable data from parts. For example, instead of having easily-stolen complete files in your bundle, store a variety of bits and pieces that only the program knows how to assemble correctly. You can even create a technically-corrupt/invalid binary file and then have your program restore the bits that you know you removed. Obviously this is an extra pain to do but if you really need to reduce the chance of losing to a competitor then it may be worth the trouble. (Note that this isn’t foolproof either, as clever people can still figure out what a program actually does; it’s just way better than doing nothing.)

lettergram 9y ago

> Only assholes get patents. They can be a huge PR mistake, and they’re a fool’s errand: even if you get one ($20,000+ later), you can’t afford to use it against any adversary big enough to matter. Okay - Google patented their search. It's enabled them to stop the whole industry. Lets not go too far.

nugi 9y ago
Is a sucessful asshole still an asshole?

vtange 9y ago

For the longest time now I've always held a bit of bias towards closed-source software, but over time I'm slowly realizing that open source is probably the way to go. If you look at the world as if it was running on a tech tree in a video game, making closed source technology only forces people to retrace your footsteps(re-research the tech, if you will) or worse, find a better alternative (leaving you and your creation in the dust). By open-sourcing, you effectively stake a flag with your name on it in the tech tree and incentivize people to use your creation as a foundation for future techs. Sure, people will be free to use copies of your work at will, but they still have to give credit to you, and won't be trying to do things differently. And that's not even mentioning that open-source stuff generally has a PR-boost compared to closed-source. If you make something closed-source, you will always have to worry about the appearance of an open-source competitor. I have seen closed-source stuff be completely eclipsed by open-source alternatives once the latter reached a critical level of quality. I mean think about it: Unreal Engine 4 is open source, would anyone start a closed-source project to compete against it? All the best minds will naturally ask you, 'Why not just work on UE4?' Yes you can fork it, but the public will always turn to the original of the fork unless your fork achieves something really different in a good way. So in a way, open-source is the most asshole-way you can do things cause it shuts down any idea of a copy/similar alternative to your work.

meheleventyone 9y ago
UE4 isn’t open source. You get source access with the license but it’s quite restrictive on what you can actually do with it. If you tried to setup a competing engine based on a fork of it you would quickly find yourself being sued. Godot would be an example of an open source game engine.
- vtange 9y ago
  Thanks for the clarification. I believe UE4 is still a good example of how the PR-bias towards anything 'open-source'. All it took was a few headlines with "Unreal" and "open-source" and I naturally grouped it with the likes of Blender and Godot.

jaxondu 9y ago

There is no opinion of him on Apple implementing features from third party apps into it's platform. Would be interesting since he's such a big Apple fan.

mankash666 9y ago
And by his logic, Apple is filled with assholes. Who go so far as to sue others over rounded rectangles.
oddevan 9y ago
Remember that he also wrote Instapaper, the key feature of which was copied by Apple: https://marco.org/2011/04/30/lion-safari-reading-list https://marco.org/2011/04/30/lion-safari-reading-list

whoisjuan 9y ago

"Only assholes get patents"... Everyone would get and enforce patents if it weren't so hard and expensive to obtain them... I think saying don't get software patents is terrible advice... Of course, don't go and patent a mediocre interaction or technique, but definitely, pursue a patent if you have worked hard on researching and developing something that is key to your business and that could be used by a better established and wealthier competitor to take a market advantage.

oldcynic 9y ago
Would they? The few times I've had a conversation with people in software on the topic, the conclusion has been they shouldn't exist. At all. I'd venture to suggest that most software patents are the obvious way of doing something. Even having read some attempts to justify them I see no merits in patents for XOR cursors, online auctions or shopping carts.

notadoc 9y ago

> Defending your __________ from copies and clones Fill in the blank, and the same lessons apply. Any idea, project, business, app, website, article, podcast, TV show, media production, procedure, product, art, creation, etc are frequently copied and cloned. And he's right, ultimately nobody cares. Sometimes a copy or clone is better than an original. Sometimes a copy or clone is much worse, but ends up successful because of positioning, luck, marketing, or savvy. Perhaps it's better to think of the risk of being copied or cloned as part of the risk of business and creation. It just comes with the territory.

mankash666 9y ago

I guess Marco really really LOVES assholes. His whole career revolves around Apple/iOS, a company legendary for it's frivolous patents & history of enforcing them vindictively when the competition's execution poses a threat. How are copyrights or trademarks ANY different? Together, they constitute essential tools in the knowledge/service economy. Demonizing patents but favoring the other two is ignorance on Marco's behalf - no one wants frivolous patents clogging the patent office, courts or legal departments of companies. Apt advice would be to carefully research recent verdicts and legislation around patents, and only apply for ones that merit the designation (yes - this is very subjective).

repsilat 9y ago
Trademarks are quite different to the other two -- they protect consumers as much as they protect producers.
moogleii 9y ago
Maybe it was just me, but I got the sense the target audience of his piece was individual or small teams. Hence, "even if you get one ($20,000+ later), you can’t afford to use it against any adversary big enough to matter." These comments citing Apple and Google with their effective use of patents as some sort of counter argument seem to have missed the mark. Those guys are certainly able to afford $20k, and they can certainly afford to take on any adversary big enough to matter.

Invictus0 9y ago

Article body completely fails to address the task set forth in the title. Don't waste your time.

landryraccoon 9y ago

If one of your potential exit strategies is acquisition, patenting your technology makes sense. Even if he's right that a startup can't afford to defend it's patents, if Amazon/Facebook/Google/Apple acquires you your startup is potentially 10x more valuable to them because they can definitely afford to defend the patent.

gnicholas 9y ago

> You can publicly call out a copy, but you won’t come out of it looking good...These disputes are best kept private, or not fought at all Interesting take, considering how Marco has called out both Pocket (formerly Read It Later) and Readability as having copied features that he claims to have created first. "Weiner systematically copied almost every major Instapaper feature over the first few years of Instapaper’s existence", from https://marco.org/2013/02/21/the-first-read-later-service https://marco.org/2013/02/21/the-first-read-later-service and "Over the next few months, they continued adding mostly Instapaper-like features to their service.", from https://marco.org/2011/11/16/readability https://marco.org/2011/11/16/readability Perhaps his recent comments reflect how well his prior callouts were received? EDIT: curious to know why this was downvoted. It wasn't meant as a dig at all—I was pointing out that Marco has experience with callouts and might have relevant expertise that many people lack. I would personally be very interested to hear his experience went dealing with those issues.

Cyberdog 9y ago
Don't know how much it will help, but I upvoted you. I used to like Marco, but after following him a while and noticing inconsistencies of principle like this, it got to me. (That, and when he said in a podcast that he didn't use SQL joins when building Tumblr because he doesn't like them. Trying to think about how he could have possibly accomplished that makes me shudder.) I can give him the benefit of the doubt that perhaps his perspectives have changed with age or experience, though. All that said, I upvoted the OP too, because as much as I don't like the guy, he's not wrong here.

aeorgnoieang 9y ago

I stopped following Marco years ago because I didn't like the tone of his writing, but this wasn't anything like what I remembered, or what I was prepared to read based on other comments here. It was clear, well-written, and not incendiary like I expected.

paulsutter 9y ago

Only assholes go around trying to enforce patents, especially as a business model. But if you don’t get any patents, you’ll be really vulnerable to these assholes > Only assholes get patents. They can be a huge PR mistake, and they’re a fool’s errand: even if you get one ($20,000+ later), you can’t afford to use it against any adversary big enough to matter.

criddell 9y ago
I don't think I would have a problem with patents except for two things: * the patent office seems to have a policy of grant-by-default * the term is way too long for software patents Grant 3-5 year patents and I think most of my objections would disappear.