John Evans wrote:
A hiberno-english image (of an original danish picture http://www.it-pol.dk/sager/swpat/videoshop) of what you would have to pay for in the new software patented www can be seen at:
Good work, but I think we need to consider who the target audience is for this. If, as I suspect, the intention is to persuade those not already familiar with the problem of software patents, I think a more dramatic approach might be productive.
Here is my crazy suggestion (and no, I am afraid I don't have time to implement it - but I am hoping that someone else might):
Text could be something like:
"In the debate over software patents, everyone is keen to claim that their proposals will protect innovation.
To test this notion, we decided to examine the case of an imaginary innovator keen to set up a video library on the Internet. He has created his website, but you, as his Intellectual Property lawyer must now take a look at it to ensure that he isn't infringing any software patents:
We then have the same picture of website, but with no numbers. When mouse is moved over different parts of the screen there is an unpleasant "crashing" noise and a red circle with a line through it appears along with some text explaining why that part of the site could not be implemented without infringing a patent (this should be doable with Flash or Javascript). This text should be reasonably verbose and clear - possibly naming the patent holder and explaining in plain English what the patent covers).
This idea isn't complete - but I wanted to put it out there for discussion,
Ian.