Ireland draws international ire for pro-software-patent stance

by redjade Wed Jul 06, 2005 16:05

'The theme, or the background music, to both of these particular directives (the CII and Services Directives) you could see as part of, anti-globalisation, anti-Americanism, anti-big business protests -- in lots of senses, anti-the opening up of markets'

more links and info at
http://taint.org/2005/07/05/222906a.html

by kino Wed Mar 02, 2005 06:32

I just found this text, on knoppix.org.
It should clear up any doubts about the difference between copyright and patent.

"This [patents] can lead to the termination of many software projects [....] because the holders of the over 30,000 already granted "software patents" can claim exclusive rights and collect license fees for trivial things like "progress bars", "mouseclicks on online order forms", "scrolling within a window" and similar. That way, software developers will have to pay the "software-patentholders" for using these features, even in their own, completely self-developed applications, ....

see full text at http://www.knoppix.org, which also links to http://swpat.ffii.org/index.en.html for more info

by seedot Wed Mar 02, 2005 02:01

They don't cover applications, they don't end up in reward for good work / innovative work, they hamper progress.

Richard Stallman gave a really good talk on this last year

http://www.ifso.ie/documents/rms-2004-05-24.html

is the link - transcript and audio available.

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=65203
discussion of talk
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=67391
charlie macreevy

This wil continue to run thanks to the good work of the ifso here in Ireland and the ffii

http://wiki.ffii.org/SwpatcninoEn

Why not free as in beer?

by Phuq Hedd Wed Mar 02, 2005 00:45

And Apple ( manufacturers of Mac OS X) are among the worst people in using patents: they threatened to sue people that developed window-manager themes that looked similar in colour and style to "Aqua" (the default).

Apple may make nice hardware, but they're no different in their business tactics than Microsoft.

by B. Programmer Tue Mar 01, 2005 18:08

Moving to a linux machine doesn't quite help - you can't just "opt out" of patent law's reach. Though perhaps you should be able to, say by agreeing never to hold any patents yourself.

by B. Programmer Tue Mar 01, 2005 18:02

Bart Cormier writes "moving to a patent system": Bart, unfortunately for what I think is your opinion, that's not quite what's happening: if the law passes, software will be one of the few (only?) things covered by BOTH copyright and patents!

Apart from that, I'd much rather be able to legally use linux now than microsoft/adobe crapware in 20 years... Patents affect independent invention, not just copying, so even were it true that software was somehow switching to "patent only", it would suck compared to copyright, which at least lets me write my own OS with my friends if we don't feel like paying for Microsoft's!

by R. Isible Tue Mar 01, 2005 17:57

Copyrights and patents have very different effects on our ability to innovate new ideas.

by Bart Cormier Tue Mar 01, 2005 16:07 bartcormier at hotmail dot com Ottawa, Canada

I know it has its disadvantages, but moving to a patent system for software may actually benefit creativity more than it harms it. The term of protection for copyright lasts many, many decades longer than the 20 year protection period you get for a patent. To illustrate the difference, civilization itself will crumble before Disney's movies fall into the public domain but we'll legally be able to make bathtub Viagra in a year or so. In my opinion, the chance to have Microsoft's and Adobe's products become freeware well within my lifetime is too good to pass up.

by mise Tue Mar 01, 2005 12:35

I presume you are using a windows machine??

Simply move to Linux or Mac.