NO E-PATENTS! (for those in EU)

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http://petition.eurolinux.org

Learn everything you should know on software patents in 15 minutes
http://petition.eurolinux.org/reference/
PDF

 

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uh...a short explanation might be nice?

 

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The fact is that if this "law" passes then Open Source programmers in European Union will have huge problems, as their work would be legally endangered.
This is about the freedom of ideas and the well being of the Open Source community



Software patents range from very technical ones to patents on pure social methods. Current constraints in the European Patent Law make it very difficult to patent anything but "machines which include software, have a technical effect and industrial application". This leaves out of the game Internet Patents (except for payment device) and patents on education methods.


However, if software became patentable, it would become very easy to get patents on internet methods, education methods, consulting methods etc. trough a clever formulation of the patent application which encapsulates such methods into software techniques. No doubt the EPO will just let such patents circumvent the Law just as it did with software.


Patents on Software Techniques

A few examples of US patents on obvious techniques such as "XOR", "using null instructions to slow down a process" or "making corrections to a document using two additional different colors".

http://www.base.com/software-patents/examples.html


Internet Patents

A few examples of USPTO/EPO patents on obvious methods such as "one-click", "internet auctions", "business referral", "web database publication", "fork & ping" or "internet caching for WAP".

http://www.freepatents.org/examples/


Patents on Education Methods

A few examples of patents on mostly obvious education methods which would require schools to pay patent licenses to multinational companies in order to implement certain education practices based on computers.

http://www.freepatents.org/examples/education.html


The FFII printable documents collection

This page includes a large collection of EPO software patents.

http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/prina/indexen.html

 

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ehh, I suspected this would be moved here

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,but if this passes it will affect far more people than just the "computer culture"
you have been warned

 

I guess it is my fault because I asked for an explanation.


sorry.

 

This is a major political thingy imo, it would suck major ass if passed

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this is like taking patents on building blocks, no one has a patens on stairs or elevators

 

Just wait until they patent breathing as a "Method of sustaining oxidization of hemoglobin in vitro" (medical patent, but still).

 

Actually they do. The elevator was patened. Escalators are also patened.

I find it difficult to imagine why adding the words 'using a networked computer' makes a new patent. The US has tons of idiotic patents like this, which effectively 'own' the field.

Unless you can demonstrate R&D time that could be saved by someone else copying your idea, I don't see the reason for a patent. So ebay has online shipping... so what? That doesn't save me any time to program my own.

Imitation of trademarks are already covered under other laws.

 

thats no reason for EU to follow

 

The only reason it's being pushed in the EU is because the US has these patents and their "Inventors" feel they can't "Monopolise" as well unless they have the same law elsewhere in the world (So they can contest other peoples work in the field)

Patents on Inventions are one thing, since everybody has the right to receive the credit of their fruits of labour, but the problem with "software patenting" is that it involves programming which in turn is mathematical. In most instances there are only so many ways of programming a preportion to a program, does this mean that the future of programmers will be:

Programmer to Boss:
"Sorry, I can't program your new application software as the programming I need to do for parsing the data to the printer spool is patented under section #### of the EU Software Patents law"

Boss to Programmer:
"Now how the hell are we suppose to print then?"

 

Are you a programmer? How does a physical invention differ from a software invention, from the perspective of the designer? Are programmers second-class citizens simply because their craft is less tangible?

 

No, they are already protected by the form of their work and existing laws.

It is pretty difficult to take apart a properly complied program and save yourself work by using that code 'design'. It is much easier to duplicate the dimensions for tangible objects.

If you can show where this will help the programmer then I might change my mind... but it seems that this would impose many limitations that would hurt programmers more than help.

 

The problem with software patents is that they allow patenting (and thus control) of new (and old providing enough prior art exists) algorithms. There are only so many ways to code a piece of software, and even fewer ways to code the software efficiently. When basic algorithms are patented, the ability to produce software is drastically crippled. Open source development would probably take a big hit too, as licenses for specific "methods of {doing this}" would need to be acquired before development could proceed...

I'm not totally against all software patenting, but the current trend seems to be patenting incredibly broad realms and all the software that could possibly implement anything in that realm (those people who sued eBay for "buy it now?" anyone?).

And as to :

The point is that programming is like math, it just doesn't make SENSE to patent something like "method of solving a linear algebraic equation". Its the same with programming, or patenting food recipes, or patenting a method of driving to work. When PROCESSES begin to become patented (especially basic processes...), innovation is stifled because people become afraid to develop anything, they don't want to go read through the entire patent database to see if what they're trying to implement has already been done, nor should a programmer have to hire a patent lawyer to do it for them, or file a patent application to protect their software.

Software patents just add another level of bureaucracy which further stifles independent innovation.