[Patents] Posner: patents impeding software development (fwd)

From: Russell McOrmond <russell _-at-_ flora.ca>
To: General Copyright Discussions <discuss (at) digital-copyright.ca>
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2002 17:08:37 -0500 (EST)

  I hate when the outdated left/right political divisions come up, but 
otherwise this is an interesting article.

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2002 22:47:38 +0100
From: PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>
To: patents@aful.org
Subject: [Patents] Posner: patents impeding software development     


http://news.com.com/2100-1023-966595.html

...

WASHINGTON--U.S. Appeals Court Judge Richard Posner, one of America's 
most prominent jurists, warned Tuesday of an "enormous expansion" of 
intellectual-property law, ...

...

Posner's critique is significant because up to now much of the attack 
on the steady expansion of intellectual-property rights has come from 
the left, and the Seventh Circuit judge is a darling of the 
conservative movement. Posner, a prolific author, is most famous for 
applying economic analysis to the law. He also mediated settlement 
talks in the Microsoft antitrust case.  

...

"A specialized court tends to see itself as a booster of its 
speciality," Posner said. "Patents are clogging retail commerce on 
the Internet, and software (patents) in particular are apparently 
impediments to software development."  

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608   
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation	     http://swpat.ffii.org/
130,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/


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