[Fsfe-ie] Possible opinion formers: academics

[Ian Clarke]

Niall Douglas wrote:
> Worse than this, you will do yourself out of funding if you dare say 
> anything against the "patent everything" line. I tried in my new 
> business proposal to say that I wanted to take out software patents 
> in order to ensure anyone could use my ideas without fear of getting 
> sued and was immediately told "That's a deal breaker. You say that 
> and you will be seen as being either a fool or soft and neither 
> inspires investor confidence. They are looking for an animal".

I think your error here was to frame your argument in terms of the 
public good - investors don't give a flying fsck about the public good, 
and the last thing they want is the Gandhi of the software world 
deciding how to spend their money.

As I highlighted in my previous email, there are robust *business* 
arguments against software patents, I have used these successfully to 
persuade some pretty hard-nosed investors that software patents were 
*not* a good idea.

Ian.