Technology Liberation Front - Latest Comments in Music Patents

Re: Music Patents

Gary McGath — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 10:33:41 -0000

Licensing twelve-bar blues is a really conservative analogy. If there were music patents comparable to software patents, there would be patents on polyrhythms, grace notes, and sonata form.

Or if we restricted ourselves to innovations since the start of the 20th century, there would be patents on 12-tone series, random selection of radio stations, and the employment of car horns as instruments, and nobody but their creators could use those techniques without a license.

Er, wait, that's starting to sound like a benefit from patents...

Re: Music Patents

Timon — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 04:50:02 -0000

Or maybe somebody successfully patenting the concept of a mock jury. Naturally, the only time I've seen or read a patent attorney wring his hands at the system was in reference to that kind of patent, which are much more valid, historically and philosophically, than software patents. (Discoveries of naturally occurring facts, such as new math or new atoms, are historically excluded, while complex novel commercial processes have always been included.) And the mock jury patent is about as likely to be respected.