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If no one else comes up with a fairly obvious idea like po pro, the chances are no one else believes it can work. I very much doubt it would work as only buy–in–the–shop commercial software, for example. Fortunately, commercial success is not my primary goal, although the pocket money would be nice. Anyway, that means there’s no real risk in publishing it.

If there is something original in it, by publishing it online it might be regarded as prior art. As I understand it, this would avoid the proposed legal system’s tax on innovation, presuming software patents are enacted in the EU. I was quoted a legal tax of at least 150,000 UKP for po pro; had software patents been in place I’d be unable to proceed because I have absolutely nothing like that kind of money, and certainly would have no intention of trying to raise it. I know software patents are meant to protect innovation; it’s just that, in a field like software where no investment is necessary to innovate, so there’s no investment to protect, all they actually protect is corporates’ and patent lawyers’ opportunism.