Z:gnu-www-ja-stallman-mec-india--b02758-=3Cb=3EA=3C/b=3E: Definitely, you coul/en

A: Definitely, you could. If there were software patents, but they only lasted for, say, 5 years or three years, that would mostly solve the problem. Yes it's a pain to have to wait 3 or 5 years, but it's much, much less of a pain. But, but there is a difficulty there. The GATT agreement says that patents must last 20 years. So, the only way you could have something like software patents which lasted for 3 or 5 years is as follows.