[casual_games] Re: game copyright

[Alex Soler]

>[kim] 3 - It's important to distinguish between the role of patents(&USPTO)
>and the abuse of the patent system. There is plenty of mis-use of the
>system which makes a strong case for fixing the system or finding an
>alternative, but that doesn't mean there isn't a role for protecting IP
>& inventors of that

> [lionel]
> The USPTO is clearly under financed, understaffed, under qualified. The
> "prior art" condition is very rarely checked.
>
> ---
> [kim]Agree completely. My point was that just because the system is
busted,
> doesn't mean you should do away with patents. Just trying to separate
> the two arguments.
>

kim, perhaps you're right. But a system that does not work is not valid.
Communism, theoretically, is not a very bad concept (or at least many people
would think so). But the truth is when you try to apply it in real world IT
DOESN'T WORK, and the results are devastating. So, almost everyone accepts
today that trying to implement a comunist economic system is NOT a good
idea. Maybe one day someone will invent some kind of system that takes some
ideas of old comunism and makes a world that is more fair, with no poor
people and that still grows with justice and prosperity. Maybe sometime
we'll find a fair way to protect genuine software inventions. But in the
meantime, let's abolish patents! :-)

But I'll tell you more, I'm not even sure that theoretically they are a good
idea. And the reason is the modular (maybe I should say fractal) nature of
software. Every line of code is used as an atom to a higher unity, and this
higher unity is used and combined to make more complex systems. Alowing some
freedom at the use of these unities allows Software (with "S", no "s", I
mean, seeing Software as global area in human culture) to grow
exponentially, with the clear benefits for humanity. To we make a blokade to
this process with thousands of patents could be for the humanity, in the mid
term, like forbid the use of patented letters and words in human language.

I have one software idea / algorithm that I think is original and I would
like to be able to protect, so dont think I'm in the "everybody can copy
everything" side. I just say I'm not sure software patents, as we understand
them, is a good idea.

Let's put it like this. In an ideal world, if my algorithm was succesfull, I
think no one should have de right to COPY it. But everyone should have the
right to see the results and try to emulate them. Even if they finally make
the same algorithm, if they didn't have access to my original code, that
means they have made a 'genuine' invention, too, so they should be alowed to
use it. I think the only mechanism that allows this philosophy is not to
publish your source code. But it's a very fragile mechanism.

Alex