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Re: Software Patents


From: rjack
Subject: Re: Software Patents
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:04:47 -0500
User-agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.4 (Windows/20070604)

Lee Hollaar wrote:
In article <n-6dnWWEL8gA4uvbnZ2dnUVZ_tmknZ2d@insightbb.com> rjack <rjack@com> 
writes:
Because Congress is *happy* with a vague and inchoate law is no excuse for incompetence.

It seem to be happy with the list of things protectable by patent.
It adopted the list in 1790, and the only change has been to update
the term "art" to "process."

You seem to be missing my point about Congress being "happy". The present Congress is happy to sit on its ass and do nothing. The latest reputable poll states that all of twenty-nine percent of U.S. citizens are happy with the job Congress is doing.

Democratic principles dictate that legislators serve at the pleasure of
the voters. Anytime Congress wishes to escape responsibility for difficult issues they pass a vaguely worded law and then leave it to the courts to absorb the political heat for any specific interpretation. Anothr similar tactic is to pass a law without the funding or means to enforce it. Sixty-one percent of voters are now tired of this kind of crap.

One result of this responsibility ducking is that our intellectual property laws end up for the most part reflecting the philosophical views and prejudices of various appellate judges (especially the Federal Circuit) and influential law professors.

Let's refer back to the Supreme Court in Parker v. Flook at the beginning of this thread:

"Difficult questions of policy concerning the kinds of programs that may be appropriate for patent protection and the form and duration of such protection can be answered by Congress on the basis of current empirical data not equally available to this tribunal.”; PARKER v. FLOOK, 437 U.S. 584 (1978).

See the "[C]an be answered by Congress. . ."? The Supreme Court is *obviously* declining to *LEGISLATE* for the Congress -- could it be any clearer?. That was twenty-nine years ago. That's over a fucking *generation* ago!!!!!!!! Still no answer from Congress -- twenty years into the Age of the Internet.

Just because the Congress is as happy as a pig in shit to sit and endlessly quibble doesn't nullify the principle that they are elected to *LEGISLATE* -- that's their defined job.

rjack



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