[free-sklyarov] Interesting Quote

[Kevin]

I'm currently reading _Shamans, Software, and Spleens_ by James Boyle, which
is about Law and Intellectual Property.  I found this interesting quote from
an Feb 20, 1994 InfoWorld article "Industry Divided over Software
Patents..." by Claire Whitmer.  This article concerns whether or not
software should be patented and the parties on both sides of that issue.  In
the article, she writes:


"On one side is the camp that claims that the use of patents will stifle
technical innovation and jack up overhead legal costs-costs eventually
passed on to consumers-to levels barring everyone but the heavyweights from
entering the market.  Though this line of reasoning is mostly expounded by
developers from small companies and the 600 members of the League for
programming Freedom, some major industry  players such as Oracle Corp.,
Adobe Systems Inc.,and Autodesk Inc. also lined up on this side... The
opposite camp argues that patents are no more harmful to innovation in
software than in any other industry and counters with an equally disturbing
suggestion that, without patents, American software inventions will be
primed for the picking, particularly by foreign developers."

Hmm, just interesting to see Adobe in there and how far they've come since
then.  Well, I guess they did withdraw their suit, but was that b/c they're
returning to their roots, or b/c of the potentially bad PR?  I'll leave that
to you.

K
--
In Vino Veritas
http://astroturfgarden.com/~ktneely