Z:gnu-www-ja-danger-of-software-patents--c38d74-Programmers can understand thi/en

Programmers can understand this immediately, but politicians usually don't know much about programming; they usually imagine that patents are basically much like copyrights, only somehow stronger. They imagine that since software developers are not endangered by the copyrights on their work, that they won't be endangered by the patents on their work either. They imagine that, since when you write a program you have the copyright, [therefore likewise] if you write a program you have the patents also. This is false&mdash;so how do we give them a clue what patents would really do? What they really do in countries like the US?