Friday, January 07, 2011

[nmazvxdq] Forbidding patents on information storage

For the sake of history, consider banning patents on storage, access, and retrieval of information.  This would cover things from construction of hard drives to data compression.  The hope is, the less restricted the information, the less likely we will be to lose the ability to read things in the many digital formats and devices that exist today.

But it might makes things worse: trade secrets instead of patents?  But those can be banned, too.

At least patents provide some documentation about a technology for future reference.  How can we provide incentive for the patent to document well enough for future generations to read?  Instead of the overly broad patents that happen now?

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