Comparing Software Patents to 19th Century Literature Patents

Guardian Unlimited writes in a lead-in to Richard Stallman's article titled Patent Absurdity:

If patent law had been applied to novels in the 1880s, great books would not have been written. If the EU applies it to software, every computer user will be restricted, says Richard Stallman.

Prior post: New Language in EU Software Patent Directive: 'Computer-Aided Invention' (June 16, 2005).

Update: Scrivener's Error responds:

Stallman's essay gets, at best, a C– because its examples are so divorced from reality, its structure is so obviously calculated to deceive, and it relies on a straw-man depiction that isn't even accurate. The irony that time has such little acknowledgment in this essay, when Stallman has been one of the leading critics of longer copyright terms, seems to have escaped both Stallman and the Guardian.

Check out the rest.

Update: More at Techdirt ("Politicians Voting For Software Patents Confused Between Patents And Copyrights").