Free?

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:45:45 -0400, Timon Gehr <timon.gehr at gmx.ch> wrote:

> On 10/26/2011 11:38 PM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
>> On Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:28:21 -0400, Kagamin <spam at here.lot> wrote:
>>
>>> Steven Schveighoffer Wrote:
>>>
>>>> patents exist to give an *incentive* to give away trade secrets that
>>>> would
>>>> otherwise die with the inventor. The idea is, if you patent something,
>>>> you enjoy a period of monopoly, where you can profit from the fruits  
>>>> of
>>>> your invention.
>>>
>>> I think, this can work for software the same way.
>>
>> You can profit from the fruits of your invention *without* patents. You
>> can with machines as well, but software has the added bonus that
>> copyright protects your IP.
>>
>> But it's much harder to reverse engineer how someone built a machine
>> than it is to reverse engineer how software is built.
>
> If it is, for example, a remote web service, reverse engineering is  
> difficult.

If you don't sell it, then there should be no point of patenting it.  You  
have much better protection by keeping it secret...

But today we have patents of these things, because they stifle  
innovation.  It creates artificial barriers that only exist because people  
have gamed the system.

-Steve