On Sun, 8 Aug 1999, James Oakley wrote:
http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US05732268__
That does *not* look good.
Haven't seen the link, but I think we should consider the following: Many companies pay their taxes in countries with low taxes, even if the work was done in high-tax countries. Similarily, many companies try to develop codes etc. in countries where copyright, trademark and patent law are on their side.
Why don't we try to get the best of all the laws of the world? Disassemble code in countries where it is OK, use algorithms in countries where one cannot patent algorithms etc.
Sehr Wus, - Matthias