Re: [Fsfe-uk] Software patent - any action?

[Alex Hudson]

On Fri, 2003-01-03 at 22:21, Chris Lale wrote:
> Its now 3 sides of A4. I have had to post it at 
> http://www.coolscience.co.uk/free-software/software-patent-music.html
> 
> Its too long for a letter. Perhaps a letter could quote a few "sound 
> bites" from it?

Long arguments don't tend to soundbite well. You need something short,
punchy, and hysterical.

You know, I actually think that you could get away with patenting music
in the US. You only have to show that something has practical industrial
uses. I seem to recall that certain forms of music - opera perhaps? -
was thought by certain people to have a beneficial effect on the growing
of crops, such as tomatos. The best place to start looking would
probably be Prince Charles' website.

Also, some types of music are supposed to make you intelligent - Mozart
(and, by extension, any other derivative scale-run based melodic music)
was supposed to be good for this. I wonder if that counts as industrial
application... it could probably be twisted around into some kind of
novel learning system (systems and methods are patentable :o)

You would probably have to frame the request in the form of a machine -
like some kind of music box or something - but as the Supreme Court put
it so nicely, "Everything that is made by man under the sun" is
potentially patentable; the fact that it's music should probably not be
a barrier. I might try finding out how expensive this patent business is
at some point. 

Cheers,

Alex.

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