O'Reilly -- Ask Tim: Amazon's Patent Reform Proposal

[ Thanks to Sara Winge for this link. ]

"Jeff's open letter to Amazon customers about the patent issues is a great outcome for the discussion we started this past week. After all, if Time Magazine's Man of the Year says that the patent system has gotten out of hand, that may well have more impact on the powers that be than if 10,000 relatively anonymous programmers do so...."

"Rethinking" is of course the key word. Jeff's suggestions are one way to address the problem. Others who know more about the patent system may have even better ideas. We must start by recognizing that we have a problem. Once we do that, we can engage technical, legal, and regulatory experts in an effort to solve that problem...."

"While Jeff hasn't done what I originally asked for--to rescind his patent claims--he has most definitely engaged with the problems I was raising, thought seriously about them, and proposed an answer that works for him and his business."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Amazon.com: An Open Letter From Jeff Bezos On The Subject of Patents(Mar 09, 2000)
• USA Today: Outrage pending over Net patents(Mar 08, 2000)
• Wired: Bezos: Patents Were Self-Defense(Mar 05, 2000)
• O'Reilly -- Ask Tim: Open Source, Patents and O'Reilly(Feb 29, 2000)
• CNET News.com/AP: Amazon patents affiliate programs technology(Feb 27, 2000)
• Technology Review: Software Patents Tangle the Web(Feb 20, 2000)
• sendmail.net: Q&A: Bruce Perens on Patents and Politics(Feb 15, 2000)
• technocrat.net: A combined defensive/offensive software patent strategy(Jan 01, 2000)
• UPDATED: Richard Stallman -- Boycott Amazon!(Dec 22, 1999)