[Fsfe-ie] Possible opinion formers: academics
Ian Clarke
ian at locut.us
Thu Dec 4 11:10:01 CET 2003
Niall Douglas wrote:
> Worse than this, you will do yourself out of funding if you dare say
> anything against the "patent everything" line. I tried in my new
> business proposal to say that I wanted to take out software patents
> in order to ensure anyone could use my ideas without fear of getting
> sued and was immediately told "That's a deal breaker. You say that
> and you will be seen as being either a fool or soft and neither
> inspires investor confidence. They are looking for an animal".
I think your error here was to frame your argument in terms of the
public good - investors don't give a flying fsck about the public good,
and the last thing they want is the Gandhi of the software world
deciding how to spend their money.
As I highlighted in my previous email, there are robust *business*
arguments against software patents, I have used these successfully to
persuade some pretty hard-nosed investors that software patents were
*not* a good idea.
Ian.
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