Waccoon:
"Maybe if "alternative" software developers were less interested in copying everything Microsoft and Apple did, and really DID innovate new, bold ideas, they wouldn't bitch so much about patents."
Since when have Apple and Microsoft been the only one to innovate, and others only copied off of them? They (Microsoft especially) have copied others; others meanwhile have also come up with new ideas.
Don't turn this into a M$/Apple versus alternative-software battle. It's certainly true that individuals and smaller companies have less to lose (they have less money to research whether their product is patent infringing; they have less money for legal fees which mean they may have to settle against a prosecution, or give up prosecuting others, even if they are in the right; they don't have a stack of existing patents to trade with other large companies), but even so, Microsoft can be affected just as much as anyone else (eg, see
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/28/133211&mode=thread&tid=113&tid=123&tid=126&tid=155&tid=95&tid=99 ).
"You got a problem with the MP3 patent? Make something else!"
The problem with sitting down and developing an alternative compression algorithm is that you might inadvertently use an algorithm that has also been patented. The fact that you develop independantly is beside the point - you'll still find yourself getting sued for your hard work.
Secondly, whilst I don't know the details of the mp3 compression format, surely it uses plenty of existing computer algorithms and mathematical ideas. Clearly they didn't reinvent the whole of mathematics and computer science (and do so in a different way) - they built upon existing ideas. If we're going to have patents, then we should at least have it fair, and make it so that the mp3 creators in turn pay back money. The problem is in going from a world without IP laws, to suddenly deciding that everything new should be giving strong legal protections from further use or development. It's an analagous situation to the way that Disney insist copyrights last forever when it comes to their work, but they in turn use other people's work to produce derivatives.
"The problem is that people are too damn lazy to protest and boycott."
I don't understand - you're arguing against ppl who are protesting against software patents, but now you're saying they're too lazy to protest?
