Re: tlug: RMS and Amazon...

[Jonathan Byrne <jq@example.com>]

Scott M. Stone (sstone@example.com) wrote:

> On Wed, 15 Dec 1999, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> 
> > Software patents do suck, you know.
> 
> yeah, so did the McDonald's "Hula Burger", but I bet it was still illegal
> to rip off the idea... not that anyone would want to... :)

I feel really happy that I don't know what the hula burger was :-)  I
bet it wasn't illegal to copy it, though.  After all, some fast food
joint was the first to bring out a bacon cheeseburger, but the others
all jumped on it pretty quickly and I bet they weren't sued for it.
A bacon cheeseburger is just too easy/obvious.  As Steve noted, that is
a point in the controversy over software patents - the patent office 
seems to set the bar too low, so people are patenting the software
equivalent of a bacon cheeseburger.


Jonathan Byrne                                 Engineering Division
Global Online Japan                            http://www.gol.com/
Tel:  +81 3-5334-1700   Fax: +81 3-5334-1702   Direct: +81 3-5334-1756
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