Great feature at Linux Weekly News

[Mike Coleman]

Tony Hammitt <thammitt at kc.rr.com> writes:
> I just got through reading a nice, in-depth interview of Eric Raymond
> (ESR) at LWN.  Here's the link.
> 
> It runs several pages, but it's worth it, especially when he and the
> interviewer start discussing software patents.  I find myself agreeing
> with the interviewer that we need to pre-emptively patent as many ideas
> as we can so we can protect their use and prevent big companies from
> stealing the ideas.

It is a very nice interview, and the software patent part is a good part of
the article.  Personally, I'm coming more and more to think that we should
just shut down the USPTO.  The damage that's being done is so great and the
benefits are so minor.  It's almost like a mid-century nuclear weapons plant,
dumping toxic chemicals and radioactive waste into the environment; only this
time, it's the environment of ideas and knowledge rather than the physical
environment.

Being more pragmatic, maybe pre-emptive OS patenting and crosslicensing is a
more possible strategy.

I also liked the initial part where he talks about concentrating on the things
you really care about and refusing to be distracted by other things.  I was
surprised to hear this come out of his mouth--it reminds me a great deal of
something I heard Richard Stallman say when asked by someone about how they
could work on Free Software (given the limited opportunities for financial
remuneration, etc).  His brief answer (as best as I can recall it) was
something like that you have to decide what's important in life, reduce your
expenses by getting rid of things you don't really need, etc.  He wasn't quite
saying we should all become monks, though if you've seen RMS in person, well,
he pretty much walks his talk and lives like one, even though he doesn't have
have to.  (AFAIK, both RMS and ESR have enough money nowadays that they
needn't work.)

I was somewhat heartened to hear him make some friendly noises towards RMS; I
kind of thought ESR just about hated his guts.

--Mike

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