[Fsfe-ie] Paul Graham's essay on software patents

Fergal Daly fergal at esatclear.ie
Wed Apr 5 23:34:40 CEST 2006


I thought it was odd how he declared patent trolls to be irredeemably
evil without any argument. If you fundamentally disagree with sw
patents then of course they are evil but they are just a rather
unpleasant symptom of the underlying disease. If you agree with sw
patents then they are just a result of the transfer rights that come
with "property" - without the right to transfer your property freely
you cannot have a market (in fact your property may lose it's value
altogether unless you are free to sell it to whomever you ike).

So basically I don't see how you can condemn patent trolls but not
condemn patents,

F

On 4/4/06, Ben North <ben at redfrontdoor.org> wrote:
> http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html
>
> Interesting insights into the role patents play in the world
> of software start-ups.  Doesn't address how they affect free
> software.
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