alt Hacker NewsI would like to implement this feature in software.
Now I cannot legally do so. Not even in free software.
We have to wait 20 years for this shit to expire. And by that point half of the people here will be retired and technology will have moved on, but this one important technique and feature will still be locked away.
See also: gif, mp3, h.264/5, seam carving, the ribbon, etc.
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Or outside imagery: 3D printing, only took off after the patents expired. Which is now a huge industry. What could have been would that patent or with it expiring earlier?
Were you going to do in your basement all the computation necessary for the research? This is something that can't reasonably be accomplished by a hobbyist on their own. If it's going to be done, it's got to be financed by some larger entity.
Do you want that to be publicly-financed, or owned by some corporation with deep pockets?
Isn't the alternative that everything stays secret/proprietary, forever?