This is how big China is

[DrBizzar0]

shawnkendall posted a link to the Top 25 Java RFE’s in the thread about structs and something catched my eye in the list.

[tr][td]Votes [/td][td]Bug ID [/td][td]Synopsis[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]1441[/td][td]4977599[/td][td]Provide documentation in Chinese[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]764[/td][td]4211070[/td][td]Java should support const parameters (like C++) for code maintainence[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]669[/td][td]4057701 [/td][td]java.io.File: Need way to find free disk space[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]507[/td][td]4499904[/td][td]RFE: Ogg Vorbis and Tarkin support for JMF[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]479[/td][td]4449383[/td][td]Support For ‘Design by Contract’, beyond “a simple assertion facility”
[/td][/tr]

Look at the #1 spot, almost a 100% more votes then #2. Hear me hear me, the Chinese will take over, flooding everything with their sheer numbers!!!1 What will their next request be? !? ! ? !!1 I tremble and await it.

[Bombadil]

Their next request will be to kick Winblows and use Linux… which will have a big impact on the world’s IT.
No matter whether Steve “Linux is a cancer” Balmer warns the Asian nations not to use Linux - because of patent issues.
(To “warn” Asian nations is something he shouldn’t do; it’s not welcome in Japan, China, Korea, and many more countries.)

Apropos patent issues. In the EU Poland said NO to software-patents now, and maybe they’ll bring to fall the whole issue.
Any Polish developer here around? Thanks a lot, and hearty greetings to St. Faustyna.

[phazer]

I’m amazed that american companies are trying to tell every other country on this planet how to behave and which laws that should apply to them. They really think they run the world.

Hopefully, because of the stupid US copyright laws and software patents, the software industry in India, Russia, China, EU etc. will outgrow the US. Maybe then they’ll wake up and smell the coffee.

[oNyx]

In the EU Poland said NO to software-patents now, and
maybe they’ll bring to fall the whole issue.

Ye, read about that some days ago.

Thanks poland :-*

[princec]

Poland have indeed scuppered software patents in the EU. Way to go, Poles!

Cas
aka
Caspian Rychlik-Prince <— now have Polish relations

[abies]

[quote]>In the EU Poland said NO to software-patents now, and

maybe they’ll bring to fall the whole issue.

Ye, read about that some days ago.
[/quote]
Original vote pro-patents was a total failure on part of one of deputes. Germany told that it will vote against patents, and polish deputy was told to vote “Same as Germany, we vote against patents”. Then Germany at last moment changed the vote to pro-patent and deputy become puzzled - he was supposed to vote against patents and at the same time to vote as Germany voted. Thanks to a total brain fart, he voted pro-patent. Now it seems to be sorted out.

[jherber]

[quote]I’m amazed that american companies are trying to tell every other country on this planet how to behave and which laws that should apply to them. They really think they run the world.

Hopefully, because of the stupid US copyright laws and software patents, the software industry in India, Russia, China, EU etc. will outgrow the US. Maybe then they’ll wake up and smell the coffee.
[/quote]
access to the wealthiest consumers on the planet requires you to abide by u.s. intellectual property laws. this certainly gives u.s. businesses a head start since they spend a tremendous amount on intellectual property protection. ms and ibm are patenting stuff like crazy, and i would expect them to eventually use $$$ to lobby patents for eu (remember these guys have billions they could lobby with.)

intellectual property protection is not totally evil or without merit. it protects an investment, and investment is necessary for development of new technology. however, the u.s. patent system is broken and should not be used as an international model.

regarding millions of advanced, cheap software engineers around the world… u.s. companies that manufacture nothing and arbitrage cheap international labor to produce high margin products are probably hoping for such a situation. a business driven society is a bleak future we are quickly spiraling towards

[Matzon]

There is nothing wrong with copyright laws - they make perfect sense. I would prefer they didn’t exist - but some people just cant stop copying others work.
The real problem is Patents, and how they’re misused (and especially mis-granted).

If you want some good stuff on how patents, copyrights (especially in the digital age) - check out Lawrence Lessigs site (lessig.org).
He recently held a presentation in denmark about Creativity:
http://media.sdu.dk/hca2004/hca1.wmv (Windows Media)

Another really nice presentation (in flash amongst others):
http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/

[Bombadil]

Europa doesn’t need software patents a la USA. And so do most of the other continents. Standard copyright laws and moderate non-software patents serve the purpose to protect your work very well.

The whole software patent issue is just another economic warfare, unleashed by a few (!) very large firms which think the world is theirs. “Windoze everywhere”, “IBM everywhere”, “Siemens everywhere”, and a few more - there you are.

Bienvenue sur NosoftwarePatents.com - Nosoftwarepatents

In particular the text about Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises is dramatically:

Europe’s software industry is primarily characterized by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
(…)
SMEs are crucial providers of pathbreaking innovations, but would be most adversely affected by patentability. The majority of them is deterred by the costs of patenting themselves, but would have to navigate around software patent portfolios of large corporations."
Deutsche Bank Research.
(…)
“Reback often tells the story of how a team of IBM patent lawyers went to Sun Microsystems Inc. in the 1980s and claimed that the then start-up was infringing on seven of its patents. After Sun engineers explained why they were not infringing, the IBM lawyers responded that with 10,000 patents, they would be sure to find some infringement somewhere.” The Washington Post.

(Bold-edition by me.)

Don’t miss to read the bottom URL named how software patents are used for a legal form of extortion: Racketeering.

The word “Patent Mafia” hits the nail on the head, perfectly.

[shmoove]

If you want some good stuff on how patents, copyrights (especially in the digital age) - check out Lawrence Lessigs site (lessig.org).

Yeah, the latest Wired Magazine issue has some nice articles about his work, although it’s mostly geared towards music, and the sampling and p2p sharing thereof. It’s still a very interesting read though, and you get a very good free CD with work copyrighted with his Creative Commons license as a bonus too.

shmoove

[jesmith]

[quote]the Chinese will take over, flooding everything with their sheer numbers!!!1 What will their next request be? !? ! ? !!1 I tremble and await it.
[/quote]
I recently read an interesting quote in theregister.com. It went something like, “In China, Linux is considered more expensive than Windows, because it comes on 3 CDs instead of just 1.”

Looks like I.P. law won’t much matter if China does take over…