[wellylug] NZ Software Patents

[Jethro Carr]

On Wed, 2009-06-17 at 12:55 +1200, John Durham wrote:
> Excuse me for commenting here. As a past writer of software and holder 
> of patents, it was always my understanding that software is a 'written 
> work'. As such in the past it has been subject to copy write law. Nobody 
> could sell your work without permission from the writer, or claim it as 
> their own after the fact unless the 'writer' had wrongfully claimed 
> authorship.
> How has this changed (suddenly)?

hi John,

This issue is about software patents which are a completely separate
issue from copyright - there hasn't been any change to copyright.

The problem with software patents is that even if you develop original
works, you could still be in violation of a patent that you are unaware
of.


As an example, if a large business got a software patent on "an
application being served by a remote webserver", they could proceed to
charge my company a fee or decide to prosecute.

Even if the software I was developing was entirely of my own work, it's
possible it could infringe on another's patent without me realising.


Does that clarify the issue for you?

regards,
jethro

-- 
Jethro Carr
www.jethrocarr.com/index.php?cms=blog
www.amberdms.com
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