White House Responds To Software Patents Petition 276
New submitter obliv!on writes "As previously discussed, the White House has started to reply to petitions on their 'We the People' website. They've now replied to the petition asking for an end to software patents. The response mentions the America Invents Act and encourages the use of the USPTO's open implementation website. Quoting: 'There's a lot we can do through the new law to improve patent quality and to ensure that only true inventions are given patent protection. But it's important to note that the executive branch doesn't set the boundaries of what is patentable all by itself. Congress has set forth broad categories of inventions that are eligible for patent protection. The courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have interpreted the statute to include some software-related inventions.' The response goes on to denote some open source and open data initiatives in government. It's nice to hear that the administration understands 'concerns that overly broad patents on software-based inventions may stifle the very innovative and creative open source software development community.' However, the overall response redirects action to the petitioners through participating in the open implementation site and contacting Congress, instead of a promise to prepare additional legislative measures for Congress to consider on behalf of the petitioners."
Re:I've got to hand it to the administration (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess it comes down to whose concerns you are going to listen to. The 1%, or the rest of us.
Don't kid yourself. Obama supports the 1%. He appointed Geithner and reappointed Bernanke. Goldman Sachs was his top contributor in 2008. He hasn't prosecuted a single executive level banker for crimes connected to the 2008 financial crisis. Compare that to Reagan's record of 800 bank executives jailed on felony charges after the S&L crisis. Even his big health care bill was just an excuse to deliver more customers to insurance companies. Notice how he didn't even pretend to entertain single payer for a moment?
Both parties, D and R represent no one but the 1%.