If Teaching Methods Were Patentable - Why Care About Software Patents
Had to digg this article:
http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm07/erm0729.asp?bhcp=1
Written by Alfred H. Essa, an Associate Vice Chancellor and Deputy CIO for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, this article presents a hypothetical parallel reality where teaching methods were patentable. With this example, he demonstrates to educators the dangers in idea (software) patents.
The article basically ends with a call to arms to Education to embrace open source and collaboration as a means to protecting itself from having the fundamentals of open education be patentable. Citing the case of Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc., Essa draws a connection to the similarity between the ideas Blackboard has patented and teaching or administrative methods used in an educational institution. The suggestion is directly drawn from the Open Invention Network.
Good article to pass on for any professors or administrators you know who don't understand why they should care about software patents. Also note -- it is licensed under the CC BY, which I find an interesting choice. Wonder why not the additional protection of shared perpetuity of the CC BY-SA?
http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm07/erm0729.asp?bhcp=1
Written by Alfred H. Essa, an Associate Vice Chancellor and Deputy CIO for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, this article presents a hypothetical parallel reality where teaching methods were patentable. With this example, he demonstrates to educators the dangers in idea (software) patents.
The article basically ends with a call to arms to Education to embrace open source and collaboration as a means to protecting itself from having the fundamentals of open education be patentable. Citing the case of Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc., Essa draws a connection to the similarity between the ideas Blackboard has patented and teaching or administrative methods used in an educational institution. The suggestion is directly drawn from the Open Invention Network.
Good article to pass on for any professors or administrators you know who don't understand why they should care about software patents. Also note -- it is licensed under the CC BY, which I find an interesting choice. Wonder why not the additional protection of shared perpetuity of the CC BY-SA?