Topic awaiting preservation: big names against software patents. (Page 1 of 1)

Linus Torvalds (LINUX), Michael Widenius (MYSQL) and Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP) appeal the EU Council to reject the "software patent directive".

An article on ZDNET: Torvalds trashes EU patent proposal

Around 2 years ago, a guy was given a patent for swinging sideways on a swing. The actual patent was pretty funny. Lots of big words and phraseology describing how to grab the chains and pull in an alternating fashion to swing sideways. He even tossed in that making Tarzan hoots-n-hollers are optional.

So, if you see any kids swinging sideways on a swing, they need to send this guy a royalty check. Or, if you see a kid teaching this to another kid for a fee, the little punk needs to get sued.

The guy was basically making a point at how broken the patent system is.

Personally, I don't totally understand patents for software.
I can understand copyrighting code.
However, patents for software seems to be more like patenting an 'intangible' idea.
For example, there is a patent for marching ants algorithm used in metablob objects.

Makes me want to run out and try to get the patent for bubble sorting.

I don't know, dude.
Something needs to be fixed, but I don't know what it is.