On "phoning home" - I thought that was a feature of
mainframes/mini-
computers for a long time (IBM AS/400, S/390, DEC VAX,
etc).
(oh... and I'm a different anon than the previous)
On the rest of
the ideas, as an engineer, the problems that I see is that
software patents
manage to lock down all possible solutions to a particular
problem rather than
the solution that the patenter had come up with. I think
it'd be awesome if the
patent review process was more open. Upon receiving
an application, publish the
abstracts. Anybody can submit an implementation
for the abstract in response.
Give a short period (1 month, 1 year, etc) and if
any presented solutions match
the claims of the patent, the patent is declared
obvious to those skilled in
the art and not issued. Basically, engage those
"skilled in the art" in the
process of checking for obviousness.
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