brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) (09/04/90)
In article <KINGDON.90Sep3210950@pogo.ai.mit.edu> kingdon@pogo.ai.mit.edu (Jim Kingdon) writes: > [a proposed organization called] > SIPRIG is dedicated to furthering the software community's knowledge of > what intellectual property rights are claimed by programmers. For any > program on the market, SIPRIG wants to know what kind of copyrights and > patents protect it. SIPRIG also wants to know if there are any trade > secrets in it, though of course it can't ask what those secrets are. > Unfortunately, it is hard to know these things. [ companies can hide this information ] I know that. SIPRIG isn't meant to force unwilling companies into saying things they don't want to say. However, its presence will encourage the *voluntary* release of intellectual property rights information. The world should know that we're interested in finding out the truth. As SIPRIG grows and more companies dedicate themselves to an atmosphere of openness and honesty, the market will have a chance to express its opinions on software protection. Do you think software patents are bad? Join SIPRIG, so that you can avoid patented programs! Do you think software patents are good? Join SIPRIG, so that you can avoid unpatented programs! Eventually SIPRIG might even have corporate members. ---Dan