Prior art won't solve the software patent problem (NewsForge)

Posted Sep 18, 2006 23:57 UTC (Mon) by bojan (subscriber, #14302)
In reply to: Prior art won't solve the software patent problem (NewsForge) by smoogen
Parent article: Prior art won't solve the software patent problem (NewsForge)

> To be honest, until people see on Boston Legal or some other mass produced show that software patents are a problem that affects them daily... it wont get poll numbers and without poll numbers representatives will feel fine taking money to protect the big industry companies.

Hmm, well maybe that's how democracy works in the US, but I have to say I'm a bit more cynical given the view from down under.

What I think is behind this is "revenue stream". Basically, software patents are, just like DRM for instance, considered a nice revenue stream. Until such time when there is more money to be made in a world without software patents, not much (if anything) will change.

I know - it's catch 22. How can open source become big business without being allowed to be big business? No idea. I just don't think legislators will pay much attention to us. They tend to pay a lot more attention to RIAAs and Disneys of the world. After all, that's where *their* money comes from.