Including source code would solve none of the problems with software patents. You are stating as fact that patents encourage innovation, but that's far from clear to me. Patents restrict knowledge from being used in further progress of knowledge and the risk of litigation acts as a damper on innovation.
Just look at copyright law, where everything is automatically copyrighted and infringement can cause huge penalties. There are certainly signs that this stifles creation for things like documentaries or other synthetic works.
I still find it funny that so many that claim to like the "free market" then finds the need to ask for anticompetitive measures...
lutorm|16 years ago
Just look at copyright law, where everything is automatically copyrighted and infringement can cause huge penalties. There are certainly signs that this stifles creation for things like documentaries or other synthetic works.
I still find it funny that so many that claim to like the "free market" then finds the need to ask for anticompetitive measures...
unknown|16 years ago
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rbanffy|16 years ago
Perhaps this risks will end up encouraging innovation on different directions, rendering the initial innovation worthless.
It's a very complex system. It's not obvious how it will react to rule changes. Even the way it functions now is not obvious.
abstractbill|16 years ago
People would just obfuscate their source code in that case.