aeb@briar.Philips.Com (Anne Barschall) (03/14/91)
I understand that there has been quite a bit of controversy recently regarding the Pike patent assigned to AT&T. I can't say I really want to get involved with this debate. I am a busy person. On the other hand, I am concerned that the viewpoints posted on usenet might be kind of one-sided. Perhaps, young college students reading these bulletin boards might get the idea that no right-thinking person likes patents (or at least software patents) or that all programmers think that software should be freely distributed and programmers should be paid out of government or charitable grants (socialization of software). I would like to be sure that the philosophy of the law of Intellectual Property is being presented: you know, why the founding fathers provided for intellectual property in the constitution, even though they disliked monopolies in general. (to encourage people to invest time and money in research by assuring them for a limited time a return on their investment commensurate with their risk of failure) My site constantly deletes postings on the bulletin boards. I don't have time to read all of the bulletin boards hunting for postings on this subject every day. I don't even know what most of the bulletin boards are about. Is there someone out there who can tell me whether it is necessary for me to get on a bandwagon and tell everyone that patents are not evil, someone who has been following this debate, someone who has not taken vows of poverty in the interest of free distribution of software? I want to be saved from beating a dead horse. I also don't want to leave the living horse totally unbeaten. Please respond by e-mail. Thank you in advance for keeping your responses calm and informative.