erikb

Kodak now joins the dark forces! Software patents are really getting strange. What I really can't understand is how anyone can agree with the current system. Or even stranger - propose to introduce a system like that here too. Soon in an European country near you. Please use your right to think and code freely while you can.

Kodak wins Java lawsuit

Quote from Groklaw:

"The main issue (IMO) is that people don't get math. Since they say you can't patent an abstract algorithm, but you can patent a mathematical algorithm if it's useful, you're saying that the same thing is both patentable and not patentable. The reason people think this way is that they think word problems aren't math problems. So, when you start giving numbers in algorithms real-word meaning, people get that confused GW Bush look and start fumbling around thinking that because the math has some real-world meaning given to it, it's somehow different than abstract math. Which is [absolutely incorrect]. What we need is to send people back to elementary school so that they can learn that when you solve an abstract math problem, then you give the numbers real-world meaning in a word problem, you don't change the problem."