Re: [DotGNU]Dvorak: "Patent Riots" of 2003

[Norbert Bollow]

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Seth Johnson <address@hidden> wrote:

> > http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1236389,00.asp
> Patent Riots of 2003 
> By John C. Dvorak

I'd like to respond, but haven't been able to find an
email address for contacting him.  Can you help?

> What do I tell people who see this as a problem? I just tell them to patent
> every idea they can and never produce any sort of product. It looks
> impossible to develop anything in this environment except patents and
> lawsuits. Yeah, like this is going to fix the economy.

I would like to point out something which I feel has so far been
overlooked in the public discussion of the issue of software patents,
namely off-shore outsourcing of business processes.

Think about what will happen if some countries establish a patent
system that seriously harms the IT industries of those countries.

In today's globalized economy the result will be that all important
business processes, which require cutting-edge and innovative
software, will get outsourced to countries where it is allowed to
create and share Free Software which meets these needs.

The outsourcing can be done for example by means of DotGNU
webservices.  The concept of webservices is not limited to simple RPC
(remote procedure calls), it can be applied to any kind of business
process.

Of particular interest are countries which do not consider software
ideas to be patentable, and which allow anyone to create a company
without being a resident.  Software developers and consultants may
want to create such a company and then make all their contributions
to Free Software in the name of this company.

I recommend this strategy as a kind of insurance against the risk
of your software-related business being destroyed by a fatal
"software patents" bug in the legal system.  Then, in the worst-case
scenario that software patents cause serious harm for the economy
of your country, at least your business will survive through selling
off-shore outsourcing of business processes to countries that do not
have such a broken legal system.

Greetings, Norbert.

- -- 
Founder & Steering Committee member of http://gnu.org/projects/dotgnu/
Free Software Business Strategy Guide   --->  http://FreeStrategy.info
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59        Fax +41 1 972 20 69       http://norbert.ch
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