The Problem With Software Patents

The developer behind Winamp and the gnutella network thinks that we shouldn't be able to patent something that is essentially just math. Software, like DNA, is so abstract that it should be everybody's intellectual property.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• bigthink

[TopOnTheAndroid]

@punchthedog and i suppose you're saying that patenting a(a) + b(b) = c(c) is okay? no, it isn't.

[punchthedog]

The notion that mathematics, or more specifically, mathematical formulae, should not be patentable is wrong. You can’t copyright English, but you can copyright a book. You can’t copyright musical notes, but you can copyright a piece of music. You can’t patent a chemical element, but you can patent a chemical formula. In fact, just about everything around us can be reduced down to un-patentable, un-copyrightable “ingredients”. It’s the arrangement of these ingredients that should be protectable.