Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Wed, 21 Aug 96 07:51 PDT | From | (Stig) | Subject | Re: AWE32 Programming Info (Official) Released!!!! |
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Alan Cox wrote: > > > I guess you're referring to RSA? RSA does not have an international patent, > > only a domestic one. This is because publication of the algorigthm was > > No other country of note recognizes software as patentable, even if there > is a hardware patent. Software is just a statement of mathematical facts
Yeah, but an algorithm is a way to do something. It's like a manufacturing process in that regard. Patents let you patent the product and the process by which it was manufactured. I don't like software patents either... especially when they hamper liberating technologies like RSA...but I thought I should make the distinction between "software" and "algorigthm". Software is protected by copyright law, while algorithms are protected by patent law.
Stig
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