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Ireland draws international ire for pro-software-patent stance
 international |
sci-tech |
opinion/analysis
 Monday February 28, 2005 23:24 by A. Programmer - The Internet
Favors multinational interests over European citizenry.
The only vaguely democratic institution in the EU, the european parliament, has repeatedly and firmly rejected software patents (or "computer implemented inventions" in Newspeak). But the European Commission and Council, spurred on by none other than our old pal McGreevy, is still trying to introduce a new law that would hand the european software industry to multinationals, mainly Microsoft and IBM, on a plate, in a sickening little "What's good for Microsoft is good for Ireland" show.
 How fellow europeans now see Ireland thanks to McGreevy For years, software in europe has been governed by copyright law. Many feel this restriction is itself too harsh, but that is a debate for another day.
Now, multinational corporations and patent lawyers are pushing for the introduction of patenting to the software field.
Patents, contrary to popular belief, have very little to do with invention - what a patent actually does is grant you a state-enforced monopoly. Patents are tools of control - the person who pays the central bureaucracy gets to stop anyone else building something, even if they developed it independently (unlike copyright)! For 20 years!
And multinationals collect them by the thousand into vast "patent portfolios". They then "cross license" with other large companies, and the companies can then form a cosy _government-supported_ cartel against small companies and ordinary citizens - it's not like you need more than a cheap PC to start writing software... But if the multinationals have their way, you'll need a cheap PC, a multi-million euro legal team, a patent or three to bargain with. and that's only if you're willing to sign everything away to them!
You might think your enemy is "capitalism", but it's really corporatism - the merger of state and corporate power, whereby a company doesn't need to compete in a free market. Patents are a tool of corporatism, and you'll note that the USA's "free" trade agreements always quietly include patent recognition agreements. A real free market capitalist system is just as much of an unattainable ideal as real communism, but patents are blatantly hypocritical if used by anyone preaching free market capitalism- they're state-enforced monopolies!
Real free trade means no patents!
Help stop the encroachment of patenting into yet another field, fight software patents today.
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Comments (9 of 9)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9I presume you are using a windows machine??
Simply move to Linux or Mac.
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.
Copyrights and patents have very different effects on our ability to innovate new ideas.
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!
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.
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.
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?
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
'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