[8521] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Multimedia has been patented
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Glenn S. Tenney)
Sun Nov 21 17:22:51 1993
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1993 14:22:27 -0800
To: com-priv@psi.com
From: tenney@netcom.com (Glenn S. Tenney)
At 4:43 PM 11/21/93 -0500, Peter Deutsch wrote:
>I would argue that in fact much of what passes for
>invention in software draws far more heavily on
>repackaging of prior art and established practice than
>potential patent holders would care to admit. In fact, the
>art of programming appears to be an excellent example of
>the quote about "standing on the shoulders of others" to
>further your own work.
What you are describing is clearly innovation rather than invention. Yes,
there are many cases of clear and obvious invention (that should be
protected intellectual property), but there is simply a great deal of
innovation (often fairly minor) going on. If there were a million chemists
all working on a similar area, we'd find the same thing happening there I'm
sure.
Your "standing on the shoulders" quotation has been modified... The
problem with most software development is that programmers do not stand on
the shoulders of others who've gone before them (as do hardware designers)
-- programmers stand on the toes of those who've gone before them.
---
Glenn Tenney
tenney@netcom.com Amateur radio: AA6ER
Voice: (415) 574-3420 Fax: (415) 574-0546
