www/philosophy trivial-patent.html

[Richard M. Stallman]

CVSROOT:        /webcvs/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Richard M. Stallman <rms>       09/12/15 15:47:44

Modified files:
        philosophy     : trivial-patent.html 

Log message:
        Minor cleanups.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/trivial-patent.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.11&r2=1.12

Patches:
Index: trivial-patent.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /webcvs/www/www/philosophy/trivial-patent.html,v
retrieving revision 1.11
retrieving revision 1.12
diff -u -b -r1.11 -r1.12
--- trivial-patent.html 23 Jul 2008 13:13:44 -0000      1.11
+++ trivial-patent.html 15 Dec 2009 15:47:40 -0000      1.12
@@ -6,14 +6,14 @@
 <p>by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/";><strong>Richard
 Stallman</strong></a></p>
 
-<p>Programmers are well aware that many of the software patents cover
+<p>Programmers are well aware that many of the existing software patents cover
 laughably obvious ideas.  Yet the patent system's defenders often
-argue that these ideas are nontrivial, obvious only by hindsight.  And
+argue that these ideas are nontrivial, obvious only in hindsight.  And
 it is surprisingly difficult to defeat them in debate.  Why is
 that?</p>
 
 <p>One reason is that any idea can be made look complex when analyzed
-to death.  But another reason is that these trivial ideas often look
+to death.  Another reason is that these trivial ideas often look
 quite complex as described in the patents themselves.  The patent
 system's defenders can point to the complex description and say,
 &ldquo;How can anything this complex be obvious?&rdquo;</p>
@@ -61,8 +61,8 @@
 pre-recorded music product from a network web site containing
 pre-selected portions</i></p>
 
-<p>That states the biggest part of their idea.  They have selections
-from certain pieces of music on a server, so a user can listen to
+<p>That states the principal part of their idea.  They put selections
+from certain pieces of music on a server so a user can listen to
 them.</p>
 
 <p><i>of different pre-recorded music products,</i></p>
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@
 the network web site;</i></p>
 
 <p>This says that they keep track of who you are and what you
-access&mdash;a common (though nasty) thing for web servers to do.  I
+access&mdash;a common (though nasty) thing for Web servers to do.  I
 believe it was common already in 1996.</p>
 
 <p><i>* c) choosing at least one pre-selected portion of the
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@
 pre-recorded products; and</i></p>
 
 <p>When you follow a link, your browser reads the contents.  This is
-typical behavior for a web browser.</p>
+typical behavior for a Web browser.</p>
 
 <p><i>* e) interactively previewing the received chosen pre-selected
 portion of the pre-recorded music product.</i></p>
@@ -140,11 +140,11 @@
 <p>This says that your browser plays the music for you.  (That is what
 many browsers do, when you follow a link to an audio file.)</p>
 
-<p>Now you can see how they padded this claim to make it into a
-complex idea: they included important aspects of what computers,
-networks, web servers, and web browsers do.  This complexity, together
-with two lines which describe their own idea, add up to the so-called
-&ldquo;invention&rdquo; for which they received the patent.</p>
+<p>Now you see how they padded this claim to make it into a complex
+idea: they combined their own idea (stated in two lins of text) with
+important aspects of what computers, networks, Web servers, and Web
+browsers do.  This adds up to the so-called &ldquo;invention&rdquo;
+for which they received the patent.</p>
 
 <p>This example is typical of software patents.  Even the occasional
 patent whose idea is nontrivial has the same sort of added
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@
 <p>What they are saying here is, &ldquo;Even if you don't think that
 claim 1 is really an invention, using CD-ROMs to store the data makes
 it an invention for sure.  An average system designer would never have
-thought of that.&rdquo;</p>
+thought of storing data on a CD.&rdquo;</p>
 
 <p>Now look at the next claim:</p>
 
@@ -167,8 +167,8 @@
 comprises a RAID array drive.</i></p>
 
 <p>A RAID array is a group of disks set up to work like one big disk,
-with the special feature that even if one of the disks in the array
-has a failure and stops working, all the data is still available on
+with the special feature that, even if one of the disks in the array
+has a failure and stops working, all the data are still available on
 the other disks in the group.  Such arrays have been commercially
 available since long before 1996, and are a standard way of storing
 data for high availability.  But these brilliant inventors have
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@
 <p>The patent system is supposed, intended, to promote progress, and
 those who benefit from software patents ask us to believe without
 question that they do have that effect.  But programmers' experience
-is otherwise.  New theoretical analysis shows that this is no paradox.
+shows otherwise.  New theoretical analysis shows that this is no paradox.
 (See <a href="http://www.researchoninnovation.org/patent.pdf";>
 http://www.researchoninnovation.org/patent.pdf</a>.)</p>
 </div>
@@ -233,7 +233,7 @@
 <p>
 Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2008/07/23 13:13:44 $
+$Date: 2009/12/15 15:47:40 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>