> > It is unclear to me whether they are suggesting that GNU change the
> > GPL in their favor, or want Linux to swich to another license. I hope they
> > understand that GPL'd code cannot be switched to a different license.
>
> Im not sure if its liability concerns or "Linux is great but we want to
> change the license so we can extort money from everyone for using it". IBM
> don't have a very good reputation with the IETF, with small vendors or
> with patent reform people for their general behaviour in the patent area.
>
> Sooner or later the entire US "sue everyone, patent everything" world is
> going to start collapsing around their ears. Reform is urgently needed so
> that if they have software patents they only accept those that are truely
> clever and unique, and that they have a cheap simple appeals procedure to
> stop abuse.
I think that some clever and unique ideas should not be patentable (e.g.
arithmetic coding, compilation of the C programming language, the idea of a
purely functional programming language, the idea of a computer input device,
mathematical theorems etc. etc. etc.). These things are great ideas, but by no
means are they devices or specific methods. Not all ideas require patents.
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