Heh. In the midst of an interesting , link-filled article on software patents comes this quote attrributed to one William H. Gates:
Quote:
"If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete stand-still today. The solution … is patent as much as we can…. A future start-up with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high: Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors."
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LINK
THe article goes on to argue against Professor Lawrence Lessig that the current system of software patents should continue.
Lessig has interesting opinions on copyright as well. He argues that the copyright term extensions are bad and should be overturned ( Applause from all corners of MR!)