wiredfool

Wow. This net.patent thing is coming on big time. Bezos has responded. Richard Stallman, the FSF guru has spoken. Tim O’Reilly. James Gleick. Dave Winer. This is so big time that Tim’s picture made it onto After Y2K!

My take is still that patents in the internet field do not encourage innovation. I don’t see where anything on the internet needs to have a a protected monopoly on an idea. Ideas are not scarce, time to implement ideas is scarce.

I have lots of ideas. Every project generates twice as many ideas as I use. As long as I am working, I will never run out of ideas. My ideas can inspire others, and their ideas inspire me. Since there are a lot of people out there, some of us end up having similar ideas at the same time. Lawyers aren’t necessary, the internet is big enough to survive without them.

In the end, the net will route around patents, just as it has routed around other damage.