kaled - 7:46 am on Jul 7, 2010 (gmt 0)

I see no reason for software patents

Lot's of people see no reason for any sort of patents. If you consider the purpose of patents to be to encourage technical development, you and they may be right, but if you take the view that people are entitled to profit from good ideas (as I do) you are wrong. Consider this...

Suppose I spend six months writing an adventure story - my rights are protected by copyright.
Suppose I spend six months developing a completely new software technology why should I have no rights (beyond bragging) to that work?

Doubtless you will say that copyright can be applied to software - that's true, but if you extend that argument so that software is protected from plagiarism too - well, the end result would be far longer-lasting protection for software that patents offer! What's more, no one would even have to register their work so this would be more expensive and even more letigious than patents. I'm guessing but I don't think that's what you want.

Kaled.