Subject: Re: bandwidth (and other support) required for multicast

From: Vernon Schryver <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 01:28:46 -0600 (MDT)

> From: Keith Moore <[email-masked]>

> ...
> basically, if you're trying to use your "ownership" of patents in order to 
> extort protection money out of people for developing or distributing 
> software, I regard this as a form of censorship, an infringement on the
> right of free speech, and therefore, an act of violence.

Please do a reality check.

Read the 19th Century history of firearm or the late 20th Century
history of ink jet printers.  In both cases, canny patents were used
to block or at least retard competition and innovation.  Investigate
any other major technical change that did not rely on Congress to
stifle competition and innovation (e.g.  telephones), and you'll find
long pauses in innovation that were related to "blocking patents."

In theory patents foster innovation, but in practice the only people
who are motivated by patents to create are lawyers and related
paper shufflers.

In other words, if you believe that patents are necessary or even
just important for innovation, then you must believe that software
innovation (including the Internet) has increased in the 10 or 15
years since the advent of software patents.  You would also almost
certainly be poorly informed about how modern software differs from that
of 20 or 30 years ago.

Vernon Schryver    [email-masked]