Simple-talk: Linus Torvalds, Geek of the Week http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-96042/simple-talk:linus-torvalds-geek-of-the-week Posts in the discussion thread "Simple-talk: Linus Torvalds, Geek of the Week" - But the reason patents are especially bad for software is that software isn't some single invention where you can point to a single new idea. Not at all. All relevant software is a hugely complex set of very detailed rules, and there are millions of small and mostly trivial ideas rather than some single clever idea that can be patented. The worth of the software is not in any of those single small decisions, but in the whole. It's also distressing to see that people patent ‘ideas’. It's not even a working "thing"; it's just a small way of doing things that you try to patent, just to have a weapon in an economic fight. Sad. Patents have lost all redeeming value, if they ever had any. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:27:16 +0000 http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-96042#post-280248 Simple-talk: Linus Torvalds, Geek of the Week http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-96042/simple-talk:linus-torvalds-geek-of-the-week#post-280248 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:31:33 +0000 zoobab 2946 "But the reason patents are especially bad for software is that software isn't some single invention where you can point to a single new idea. Not at all. All relevant software is a hugely complex set of very detailed rules, and there are millions of small and mostly trivial ideas rather than some single clever idea that can be patented. The worth of the software is not in any of those single small decisions, but in the whole. It's also distressing to see that people patent ‘ideas’. It's not even a working "thing"; it's just a small way of doing things that you try to patent, just to have a weapon in an economic fight. Sad. Patents have lost all redeeming value, if they ever had any."

Source: http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/linus-torvalds,-geek-of-the-week/

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