Talk:IT Innovation System
--Jack Richins 21:59, 20 Oct 2004 (PDT) I think some of the time periods granted for patents and copyrights are quite excessive for IT's current timelines. One possible exception is RSA's patent on public key cryptography. They had the idea apparently so far ahead of the market that they had trouble finding interest in it. Perhaps that's a good example of the type of thing that should be patented - something really innovative, to the point where at first you have trouble knowing what to do with it.
Another idea might be looking at how corporations are collecting patents. Microsoft recently began going after patents in a big way after years of ignoring them precisely so they can cut deals with SUN, IBM, and others. This could have a chilling effect on innovations from smaller companies or small open source projects. Even if IBM is willing and legally able to shield Linux with it's patent portfolio, will it do so for every small project? Is the EFF or some other such organization doing something to compete with corporations patent portofolio's?
Not a good fit?
--Chalecki 17:00, 23 Oct 2004 (PDT) Has any group ever looked into creating an alternative to patents and copyrights when it comes to protecting software? Copyright seems a little too static for how intricate software can be. Patents seem a bit too scoped for how complex software can be. There have been times where I see software where any individual part of it seems straightforward, if not obvious, but the way pieces are put together (sometimes, just the fact that they were put together) is worthy of protection to encourage further development. Additionally, I think there needs to be some protection, since it is trivial to copy, to help ensure it happens in the first place. I would also like to see this protection encourage some of the principles of open source. With how flexible software can be, it seems a shame to not allow consumers to customize it exactly to their needs. I just don't have any idea what form this magical IP protection should take ...
