I think that Robert Silvers tried to apply his patent too broadly. I think if he had stuck to something like jigsaw puzzles or a program of some sort. I'm all for him getting the credit on creating something that should've seemed obvious, but the fact of the matter is, you can't put a patent on an art form. Now an application of an art form is something different to me, I'm fine with him taking it and doing what he wants with it, or even filing multiple patents and never doing anything with them. I see it as his right. I just can't support a view where he takes out an overarching patent on the art form and turns around and tries to restrict its use. On the plus side, I want to research PUBPAT a lot more, and see what they're all about. This has always been an area I've thought about going into.
That's my informal, blog-worthy rationale. Expect there to be edits as I think on it more. Please feel free to comment below and I'll do the same for some of yours!
-Austin
I completely agree that his patent seems too broad! Plus on his website he's a real jerk about people making photomosaics even with their own code. Yes great he's now a successful computer science artist (hmm maybe even a first of those) but he doesn't need to throw it in everyone's faces.
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