« February 2003 | Main | October 2003 »

March 17, 2003

I want to apologize about taking so long to re-release uControl due to this patent issue, but I didn't want to just squelch the Twerq feature quietly and make it look as though it never existed. I think too much of that has happened since software is so malleable.

Although the code for Twerq is no longer there in a functional form, I have left the UI elements in tact as shown here. And I encourage people to sign a petition against software patents. In my opinion, and in the opinion of many other software professionals, software patents hinder the progress of software and unfairly restrict the user. There are already numerous sites that explain in great detail why software patents are bad, such as the League for Programming Freedom.

Also software already flouts copyright expiration (which may be a moot point now that copyright is functionally forever). The source code in most commercial software is never published; therefore it never falls into the public domain. Why does software deserve all this protection for value that the public will never recoup?

Posted by shane at 03:49 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack