Banana Republic
The European Commission has controversialy adopted its Common Position on the software patent directive.
Despite the fact that it is against the commission's own rules and is opposed by the Open Source Software community, most developers, small businesses and sensible full member countries such as Denmark.
The only people who want Software patents are the greedy corporations who see them as a means to block competition from the Free (as in freedom) software and small entrepreneurial businesses.
The basics, dangers, untruths and politics as well as the blatant unfairness of such patents are comprehensively demonstrated by the FFII (Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure) but I'll briefly summarise here.
1) We don't need them. Microsoft, Oracle and other large software vendors got rich without patents. Copyright law is already sufficient to protect an authors rights.
2) Patents are a form of State sponsored Monopoly, the state will help enforce the monopoly to protect the patent holder. The idea being that in order to encourage good ideas and invention (which is good for society) in a country the inventor should be given a 20 window to exploit the idea by patenting it, which in effect documents fully how to re-create the invention, then the patent ends and the idea enters the public domain for the good of society at large. Software patents are being handed out for unoriginal ideas or in areas of common practice where prior art already exists! This would enable a patent holder to force any of its competition to pay for its licenses for practices that they are doing that the patent holder didn't even invent!
3) The cost of defending yourself in court from an unfair patent claim can be enormous. This means that just the threat of a court case can drive competition out of the market even if the claim or the patent are bogus.
4) In the USA the speed at which software patents are being filed caused the patent office to change its procedures so that instead of the rigorous proof traditionally applied to patents (e.g. is it a new idea or a significant improvement on existing technology? Is it non-obvious to an expert in that field? Is there prior art? Is it already common knowledge, does someone already own the patent!? etc) was taking too much time and effort and so they now just let a company claim a patent and then let the courts decide! The court system will profit and so will Big business because this again this makes it expensive for the little guy if a software giant alleges that the patent he owns is theirs and a court battle ensues. Will this happen here in Europe?
5) The effect of monopolies and removing competition and entrepreneurial spirit from an economy is disastrous and always leads to worse products (software) and higher prices. As we become more and more dependent on computers and software to handle our lives (and money!) Do we really want worse software with bad security at a higher price?
6) Some of the best software in the world is Free(as in freedom) Open Source software. You are probably reading this blog because it has been served up by open source web servers that has been running continuously 24/7 for months if not years , the firmware in your home router/firewall is more than likely based on GNULinux operating system. Which in itself is free and just works. Do you want to loose all of that and put up with the Support centre panacea, "Have you tried re-booting it?"
Support Denmark and other thinking Democracies and help protest about powerful laws being railroaded in to crush the likes of you and me, by un-elected Corporations.
Despite the fact that it is against the commission's own rules and is opposed by the Open Source Software community, most developers, small businesses and sensible full member countries such as Denmark.
The only people who want Software patents are the greedy corporations who see them as a means to block competition from the Free (as in freedom) software and small entrepreneurial businesses.
The basics, dangers, untruths and politics as well as the blatant unfairness of such patents are comprehensively demonstrated by the FFII (Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure) but I'll briefly summarise here.
1) We don't need them. Microsoft, Oracle and other large software vendors got rich without patents. Copyright law is already sufficient to protect an authors rights.
2) Patents are a form of State sponsored Monopoly, the state will help enforce the monopoly to protect the patent holder. The idea being that in order to encourage good ideas and invention (which is good for society) in a country the inventor should be given a 20 window to exploit the idea by patenting it, which in effect documents fully how to re-create the invention, then the patent ends and the idea enters the public domain for the good of society at large. Software patents are being handed out for unoriginal ideas or in areas of common practice where prior art already exists! This would enable a patent holder to force any of its competition to pay for its licenses for practices that they are doing that the patent holder didn't even invent!
3) The cost of defending yourself in court from an unfair patent claim can be enormous. This means that just the threat of a court case can drive competition out of the market even if the claim or the patent are bogus.
4) In the USA the speed at which software patents are being filed caused the patent office to change its procedures so that instead of the rigorous proof traditionally applied to patents (e.g. is it a new idea or a significant improvement on existing technology? Is it non-obvious to an expert in that field? Is there prior art? Is it already common knowledge, does someone already own the patent!? etc) was taking too much time and effort and so they now just let a company claim a patent and then let the courts decide! The court system will profit and so will Big business because this again this makes it expensive for the little guy if a software giant alleges that the patent he owns is theirs and a court battle ensues. Will this happen here in Europe?
5) The effect of monopolies and removing competition and entrepreneurial spirit from an economy is disastrous and always leads to worse products (software) and higher prices. As we become more and more dependent on computers and software to handle our lives (and money!) Do we really want worse software with bad security at a higher price?
6) Some of the best software in the world is Free(as in freedom) Open Source software. You are probably reading this blog because it has been served up by open source web servers that has been running continuously 24/7 for months if not years , the firmware in your home router/firewall is more than likely based on GNULinux operating system. Which in itself is free and just works. Do you want to loose all of that and put up with the Support centre panacea, "Have you tried re-booting it?"
Support Denmark and other thinking Democracies and help protest about powerful laws being railroaded in to crush the likes of you and me, by un-elected Corporations.
posted by Karl at
9:04 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home