From: Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@...>
Date: 2004-12-03T10:18:01+09:00
Subject: Re: SOT gmail invites

On Friday, December 3, 2004, 9:25:50 AM, Bill wrote:

> Software patents are like, if you play guitar, Eddie Van Halen
> patenting Tapping (two-handed hammer-on technique).  The damned
> *IDEA* is the easy part.  It's the implementation that's hard.

In building software, though, turning ideas into profit is an
expensive and risky exercise.  Much more so than busting a few guitar
moves.

Once you've seen the benefit of an idea you'd never have thought of
yourself, the implementation is often trivial.  Just like many guitar
techniques :)  Entity A proves the commercial viability of an idea at
great expense; entities B-Z exploit that idea at no expense.  The
first-mover advantage very often _doesn't_ apply in software, as
pioneers don't have the scale to fully capitalise on their ideas.

I'm not arguing for or against the matter at hand here.  I think the
current situation is a matter of some valid but bague principles being
exploited with all the desparation and environmental soundness of a
goldrush.

Cheers,
Gavin