RedHat attempting to get rid of copyright in the US.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/10/red-hat-bilski-brief-says-software-patents-stifle-innovation.ars<p>Looks like RedHat is trying to get rid of copyright... And if I had to place money on why, it is to get rid of GNU and thus make RedHat Linux the only way to get their Linux Distribution, no more CentOS (maybe even no Fedora).
1 comments
Copyright != Patents.
You seem to have a few things mixed up, GNU software exists by the grace of copyright, and copyright isn't going anywhere, at least not for the foreseeable future, even though plenty of industries that base their revenue streams on copyright are going to have to rethink their business models because of the ease with which copyright infringement can be done.
Software patents are a way to lock other people out from doing the same thing that you are doing using software only, it is a fairly recent and extremely misguided (imo) extension of the patent system.
You seem to have a few things mixed up, GNU software exists by the grace of copyright, and copyright isn't going anywhere, at least not for the foreseeable future, even though plenty of industries that base their revenue streams on copyright are going to have to rethink their business models because of the ease with which copyright infringement can be done.
Software patents are a way to lock other people out from doing the same thing that you are doing using software only, it is a fairly recent and extremely misguided (imo) extension of the patent system.