Idiotic Patent Law affects web

Fri Aug 29 17:04:12 GMT 2003 Idiotic Patent Law affects web

Read more here: IE Patent Loss Aftershocks Reverberate.

Not that I care about Flash and Active X in web pages - I've always thought that was dumb anyway. Nor do I care that Microsoft has to fork over a ridiculous amount of money to people who don't deserve it. But the present situation with patents and copyrights is becoming downright dangerous. We have websites shutting down in protest of European Patent laws, NCR trying (and losing, fortunately) to sue Palm and Mickey Mouse apparently will get copyright protection forever.

Lawrence Lessig has warned about this in The Future of Ideas and a few people are starting to pay attention, though I think not enough.

The situation is out of hand, and of course the vested interests sure don't want to do anything about it. But we need to, because we all lose if this is allowed to continue.

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