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Comment by schammy | Hacker News Reader

Wow, that is really cool. The quotes in the article explain exactly why software patents are absolutely horrible for innovation. Pretty much every idea ever that can be written as software has been patented at this point. Any code you write is probably violating some fucking patent, and if you're making money from software you write, it's only a matter of time before the patent trolls come knocking. It absolutely disgusts me. Maybe I'll move to NZ. I'm really impressed by this, seriously.

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The quotes in the article explain exactly why software patents are absolutely horrible for innovation.

Really? I thought the opposite-- they certainly make the case against overly broad patents, but then say "If an inventor has a really original and outstanding idea, then a patent might be merited."

It's these "really original and outstanding" ideas that the patent system is designed for, and why "non-obviousness" is supposed to be a requirement for a successful patent application.

Thake a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventive_step_and_non-obviousn...

New Zealand also has other sensible policies. (Or lack of non-sensible ones.)

E.g. they do _not_ have deposit insurance (on bank deposits).

What's wrong with deposit insurance? If I give my money to someone else to hold for me, don't I want some guarantees that they will give it back when I need it? Or do they cause problems elsewhere?

Yes, you want some guarantees. But it's the job of either you or your debtor to get those guarantees. Not the job of the general public.

The biggest problem is moral hazard. With outside guarantees you don't care about default risk. And debtor will compete solely on return, not on risk-adjusted return.

Without an external backer, you will watch your bank much more closely. And banks can't be watched closely enough.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has a page (http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/finstab/banking/regulation/3256868.h...) explaining why they don't have deposit insurance in New Zealand.

While we generally have pretty decent laws down here, internet and access to technology and the surrounding community pretty much sucks.

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