…is by far the stupidest piece of legislation that I’ve ever come across. Or maybe not, but in that case, the authorities handling the practicalities of the law are obviously incompetent.
How else would you explain this? (In case you wonder but are too lazy to follow the link, some bright young mind now wants to patent XML. The question of prior art has obviously not come up yet, or we wouldn’t have to bother. Or has it? Can they really be this stupid?)
If they do manage to patent XML, I guess I won’t have to bother trying to find a decent XML editor for Linux. Now that’s something.
It gets worse. Some dweeb is currently trying to patent “storylines” in the US. That is plots. Fiction plots. IDEAS. And anyone using a specific plotline even if they do it in a new way with a new twist is, according to his website, a “thief”.
There goes the trade of the writer. Since none of us have invented anything new for a thousand years, since the number of plots are finite and all can be reduced to one or another aspect fo those few plotlines, once they’re all patented by some greedy gob that’s it – nobody else can ever write and publish another word or they’d get sued for the shirt off their backs.
Sheesh.
Alma
I’d reply but it seems that what I wanted to say is now copyrighted by Harper Collins.