Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 12:15:42 02/15/04
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On February 15, 2004 at 15:10:30, Slater Wold wrote: >On February 15, 2004 at 13:53:33, Bob Durrett wrote: > >>On February 15, 2004 at 13:24:54, Uri Blass wrote: >> >>>I understood from the winboard forum that Bob considers DanChess as a crafty >>>clone and the question is what is the definition of a clone. >>> >>>I remember from slater's post in this forum that if most of the code is >>>different you cannot win in court by complaining that it is a clone. >>> >>>I understood from Dann's post that only 30% of the code of DanChess is >>>similiar(that does not mean the same as Crafty). >>> >>>Dann Corbit posted in the winboard forum the SEE function of Danchess that is >>>similiar to Crafty. >>>I wonder if it is really the main reason that Bob considers Danchess as a clone >>>or only one of the reasons. >>> >>>Uri >> >>Can you patent or copyright an algorithm???? > >Patents cost, on average, about $10k. > >No one is ever going to patent an algorithm for chess, unless it actually solves >the game. Some chess algorithms are probably worth millions of dollars, if they had been patented. Searching and sorting are where 40% of mainframe cycles go. And chess is searching. Fortunately, back in the days when these things were invented, people would publish them for the sheer joy of discovery. The Communications of the ACM put the software industry ahead by such leaps and bounds that I think it is one of the major reasons why software is now a multi billion dollar industry. In my opinion, software patents are evil. Here is why: You cannot patent a process or mathematics. Algorithms are an embodiment of processes and mathematics. It seems simple logic to me that no software should receive a patent. But the law as it stands says that you can patent. And so I will obey these laws, even if I don't like them.
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