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There were some folks who owned a lot of slaves back in the day, too. Not a good argument, by itself, sorry.
by bhiggins 16y ago
There were some folks who owned a lot of slaves back in the day, too. Not a good argument, by itself, sorry.
- lukesandberg 16y agonot really a fair comparison. Obviously in the case of slavery most people would believe that matters of economic stability play second fiddle to the overarching concerns of Justice and Morality. However, as evil as you may think software patents are, they are not on the same level. The USPTO should consider economic ramifications of a decision to stop issuing software patents, or to invalidate patents. I'm not saying they should not go ahead and do it, but it would be irresponsible not to consider any potential negative effects.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- metageek 16y ago"Obviously in the case of slavery most people would believe that matters of economic stability play second fiddle" -- It wasn't obvious when slavery was legal.
- lukesandberg 16y agoTrue, that was mostly certainly historical relativism on my part. Maybe in 100 years people will look back on patent lawsuits similarly... but i doubt it
- tkeller 16y agoSeriously? This is your argument? Comparing software patents to slavery trivializes the suffering and evils of slavery.
- nitrogen 16y agoPerhaps independent developers feel like prisoners (slaves may be too strong a word) where the wardens are software patents. If you ask the FSF, non-Free software is unethical for "enslaving" the knowledge contained in the software (though I think that position goes a bit too far).