Z:gnu-www-ja-software-literary-patents--33f6df-When politicians consider the/en

When politicians consider the question of software patents, they are usually voting blind; not being programmers, they don't understand what software patents really do. They often think patents are similar to copyright law (&ldquo;except for some details&rdquo;)&mdash;which is not the case. For instance, when I publicly asked Patrick Devedjian, then Minister for Industry in France, how France would vote on the issue of software patents, Devedjian responded with an impassioned defense of copyright law, praising Victor Hugo for his role in the adoption of copyright. (The misleading term  &ldquo;intellectual property&rdquo; promotes this confusion&mdash;one of the reasons it should never be used.)