Whatever your position on software patents, or on patents in general, one thing is clear. Principled arguments are more interesting than unprincipled arguments.
Whatever your position on software patents, or on patents in general, one thing is clear. Principled arguments are more interesting than unprincipled arguments. I have recently begun writing about principled computing. Here, in no particular order, are my principles that relate to software. In other words, this is the baggage that I carry when I write or speak about software patents.
- Questioning is good.
- Dialog with disagreement is good.
- Competition is good, monopolies are bad.
- Creativity is good.
- Efficiency eliminates jobs, inefficiency creates jobs.
- When trees die, they rot and form soil for new trees (and, as such, bankruptcy can be good).
- Everybody has a motive, whether it’s fame, fortune, philanthropy, or something else.
- Some engineers (and other scientists) are often primarily interested in being correct.
- Cool software is good.
- Software is not magical.
Because I value dialog with disagreement, I enable users to post comments on this website. Because I have coded software for a living, I believe that software is not magical. Because many of my clients are software developers, I believe that competition is good but that monopolies are bad.
What are your beliefs? Your motives? And how do they shape your thinking about these issues? Let the principled dialog begin.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: In the summer of 2025, Clocktower Intern Mark Magyar used artificial intelligence (AI) software to shorten over 100 Clocktower articles by 17%. The shortened articles are included as comments to the original ones. And 17 is the most random number (https://www.giantpeople.com/4497.html) (https://www.clocktowerlaw.com/5919.html).]
* Software Patents: Principled Dialog (Part 2)
Whatever your position on software patents, or on patents in general, one thing is clear: principled arguments are more interesting than unprincipled ones.
I’ve recently started writing about principled computing. Here, in no particular order, are the principles I carry into discussions about software and patents:
Questioning is good.
Dialog with disagreement is good.
Competition is good; monopolies are bad.
Creativity is good.
Efficiency eliminates jobs; inefficiency creates them.
When trees die, they rot and form soil for new ones (bankruptcy can work the same way).
Everyone has a motive—fame, fortune, philanthropy, or something else.
Some engineers (and scientists) mainly want to be correct.
Cool software is good.
Software is not magical.
Because I value dialog with disagreement, I allow comments on this site. Because I’ve written code for a living, I know software isn’t magical. And because many of my clients are developers, I believe competition is healthy while monopolies are harmful.
So—what are your principles? Your motives? How do they shape your views? Let the principled dialog begin.