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[News] Outrageous Software Patents Harm Development of Good Free Software

  • Subject: [News] Outrageous Software Patents Harm Development of Good Free Software
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:11:35 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Netscape / schestowitz.com
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
stupid patents

,----[ Quote ]
| Many of Apple's concepts such as icons stacks, parabolic zooming in panels 
| and (most recently) widgets on media centers that they seem to feel are 
| patentable are either unoriginal or just plain trivial.  
| 
| [...]
| 
| Future society will look back upon us and cluck their tongue at how stupid we 
| were for having let the patent system encroach upon things such as software 
| on the one hand and become so baroque a system as to be generally lacking 
| usefulness on the other.   
`----

http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/02/stupid-patents.html

Patents and OpenMoko

,----[ Quote ]
| We need to file patents for our hardware as well as software designs. 
| While my personal views on software patents are inline with people like 
| Eben Moglen, as a company, we are forced to play by the rules of the game.
| 
| What I want is for a our company's patents to be freely available, for 
| anyone, but for defensive purposes only.
| 
| Are there any existing options available to us now? Does anyone know of 
| existing companies or organizations with a similar strategy that we can 
| seek guidance or partnership.
`----

http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-February/013171.html

Monopolies bribed politician (via lobbyists and such) for laws that protect
their monopolies, so this is where you end up. OIN.


Days ago:

RIM Spends $890,000 Last Year To Lobby For Patent Reforms

,----[ Quote ]
| $890,000 seems like quite a bit of money until your remember that RIM paid 
| out $612.5 Million to NTP to settle their patent infringement lawsuit in 
| 2006.  
`----

http://www.berryreview.com/2008/02/06/rim-spends-890000-last-year-to-lobby-for-patent-reforms/


Major change ahead at European Patent Office

,----[ Quote ]
| Brimelow’s predecessor, Alain Pompidou, turned down requests for a referral 
| to the enlarged board last year. She appears more willing to address the 
| issue of software patentability. While there are no concrete plans for a 
| referral at present, Brimelow said she would not rule one out one in future. 
| Rainer Osterwalder, the EPO’s director of communications, said after the 
| interview that there could be a referral in the coming weeks or months but he 
| declined to be more specific. Brimelow is bothered by the way the EPO has 
| been portrayed as partisan on the side of patent owners in the debate over 
| software patentability. It’s “unhelpful”, she said, and went on to 
| demonstrate that she does see where many of the EPO’s critics are coming 
| from.          
`----

http://bulletin.sciencebusiness.net/sb/login.php?page=/ebulletins/showissue.php3?page=/548/art/9901


Related:

European patent chief paves the way for change

,----[ Quote ]
| She is dismissive of some of the criticism leveled at the patent system and 
| specifically at the EPO from parts of the open-source and free software 
| movements.  
| 
| "There's a high degree of emotion, but a low degree of light," she said, 
| referring to both sides in the intense lobbying when the European Union was 
| debating a proposed law on software patentability that was scrapped in 2005.  
`----

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/02/04/european-patent-chief-paves-way-change


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5jkZFIwmc-8


Lessig: Required Reading: the next 10 years

,----[ Quote ]
| Yet governments continue to push ahead with this idiot idea -- both Britain
| and Japan for example are considering extending existing terms. Why?
|
| The answer is a kind of corruption of the political process. Or better,
| a "corruption" of the political process. I don't mean corruption in the
| simple sense of bribery. I mean "corruption" in the sense that the
| system is so queered by the influence of money that it can't even get
| an issue as simple and clear as term extension right.
`----

http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003800.shtml#003800 


RIAA, MPAA urge pro-copyright vows from presidential candidates

,----[ Quote ]
| One question, for instance, asks: "How would you promote the progress of 
| science and creativity, as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, by upholding 
| and strengthening copyright law and preventing its diminishment?"  
`----

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9821141-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20


Is Sarko Uxorious?

,----[ Quote ]
| What this neglects to take into account is the fact that falling into the 
| public domain is a gain for the public - and hence the actual moment when it 
| becomes part of the "national pop heritage" - and that the gain vastly 
| outweighs any minimal effect it has on ageing rockers' royalties. 
| Unfortunately, with this action, as with others (including the "three strikes 
| and you're out" approach to fighting filesharing), Sarkozy shows himself to 
| be an old man - however young his new wife may be.      
`----

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/02/is-sarko-uxorious.html


MEPs debate tightening up lobbying rules

,----[ Quote ]
| MEPs on Thursday launched the thorny debate on tightening rules covering the 
| thousands of EU lobbyists in Brussels, with an initial discussion showing 
| deputies in favour of defining the term "lobbyist" as broadly as possible but 
| shying away from the 600-page rulebook that defines and confines lobbyists in 
| the US.    
| 
| [...]
| 
| For his part, Mr Stubb says he is not out to demonise lobbyists, whose 
| activities have come to light recently during the ferocious lobbying on 
| legislation that took place during the development of the chemicals, services 
| and software patent laws.   
`----

http://euobserver.com/9/25526


Tech Group Expands State Lobby Efforts

,----[ Quote ]
| High-Technology Trade Association Boosts State Lobbying Program With Funding, 
| Personnel 
| 
| [...]
| 
| The group represents about 2,500 companies, including Microsoft Corp., Google 
| Inc. and Dell Inc., in the software, telecommunications, computers, 
| semiconductor and other sectors. It announced the plans Thursday.  
`----

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080125/technology_lobbying.html?.v=2


Dutch government threatens to sideline Microsoft

,----[ Quote ]
| Proposed legislation that would mandate the use of the Open Document Format 
| (ODF) across the entire Dutch government has infuriated Microsoft. 
| 
| [...]
| 
| Microsoft Netherlands has engaged in fierce lobbying in an attempt to derail 
| the plan. The company argues that the current definition is too narrow, 
| specifically by mandating ODF rather than open standards in general  
`----

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/12/10/dutch/index.php


Big businesses boast of patent benefits, for small businesses

,----[ Quote ]
| A report published by an EU task force on intellectual property claims
| that small businesses benefit from a patent system, despite lacking
| almost any participation by the small business community.
|
| Instead, the report, titled IPR (intellectual property rights) for
| competitiveness and innovation, was written up almost entirely by
| large corporations and the patent industry.
|
| [...]
|
| The report does note objections from the likes of patentfrei.de and
| Sun Microsystems, which were recorded at some length in the report.
| But this does not appear to have impacted the conclusion of the
| report in any way
|
| [...]
|
| Jean-Pierre Laisne, of ObjectWeb, an open source software community,
| said that he found the report useless: participants were told that
| all their contributions would be recorded but at the end only
| those of Business Software Alliance and Microsoft were used.
`---- 

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/99155/big-businesses-boast-of-patent-benefits-for-small-businesses.html


A Patent Lie

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his 
| senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, "If people had understood how 
| patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented, 
| and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete 
| standstill today." Mr. Gates worried that "some large company will 
| patent some obvious thing" and use the patent to "take as much of 
| our profits as they want."
`----

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html


Years of deadlock on EU patent bring some new thinking

,----[ Quote ]
| When Bill Gates visits Brussels on Thursday to speak with
| government officials, software developers and customers, he
| plans to wade into one of Europe's longest-running, most
| fruitless debates: the pursuit of a unified patent system. 
| Gates, chairman of Microsoft, wants a simple system that will
| allow the world's largest software maker and other companies
| to protect their intellectual property in the European Union -
| and profit from licensing their patents.
`----

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/08/business/patents.php


,----[ Quote ]
| "A source that deals with the company said unofficially that Gates
| proposed Microsoft's Digital Rights Management technology as a national
| standard to fight piracy at the governmental level."
`----

http://www.kommersant.com/p719683/r_528/


Leaked letter warns of open source 'threat to eco-system'

,----[ Quote ]
| leaked letter to the European Commission has revealed the extent of
| lobbying by proprietary software groups to prevent the widespread
| adoption of open-source software.
| 
| Sent in response to a recent report on the role of open-source
| software in the European economy, Microsoft-funded pressure
| group, the Initiative for Software Choice (ISC) warned of
| potentially dire effects if too much encouragement was given
| to open source software development.
`----

http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=7109


EPO says UK patent law is clear enough

,----[ Quote ]
| Article 52, clause 2, outlines items that do not qualify for
| patent protection, under European and UK law, and includes
| "schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing
| games or doing business, and programs for computers".
| 
| Exactly how this clause should be interpreted has been extremely
| contentious, with passionate arguments on both sides of the debate.
| Some fear that too broad an interpretation could lead to US-style
| software idea patents being granted in the UK. Others are
| concerned that if it is interpreted too narrowly, it will
| discourage innovation in the UK.
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/19/epo_says_no/

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