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trans-coord/gnun/philosophy software-literary-p...


From: Yavor Doganov
Subject: trans-coord/gnun/philosophy software-literary-p...
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:10:09 +0000

CVSROOT:        /sources/trans-coord
Module name:    trans-coord
Changes by:     Yavor Doganov <yavor>   09/06/25 18:10:08

Modified files:
        gnun/philosophy: software-literary-patents.html 

Log message:
        Automatic sync from the master www repository.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/trans-coord/gnun/philosophy/software-literary-patents.html?cvsroot=trans-coord&r1=1.4&r2=1.5

Patches:
Index: software-literary-patents.html
===================================================================
RCS file: 
/sources/trans-coord/trans-coord/gnun/philosophy/software-literary-patents.html,v
retrieving revision 1.4
retrieving revision 1.5
diff -u -b -r1.4 -r1.5
--- software-literary-patents.html      18 Sep 2008 18:12:04 -0000      1.4
+++ software-literary-patents.html      25 Jun 2009 18:10:07 -0000      1.5
@@ -15,46 +15,39 @@
 <p>by <strong><a href="http://stallman.org/";>Richard Stallman</a></strong></p>
 
 <p>
-<em>This article was first published in <cite>The Guardian</cite>, of
-London, on June 20, 2005.  The software patent directive was voted
-down, on July 6, because its supporters decided at the last minute not
-to try their strength.  They will surely try again, in not quite the
-same way.</em></p>
-
-<p>
-On July 6, 2005, the European Parliament will vote on the vital
-question of whether to allow patents covering software&mdash;a policy
-that would restrict every computer user, and tie software developers
-up in knots.
-</p>
-
-<p>
-Many politicians may be voting blind; not being programmers, they
-don't understand what software patents do.  They often think patents
-are similar to copyright law (except for some details)&mdash;which is
-not the case.  For instance, when I publicly asked Patrick Devedjian,
-then Minister for Industry, how France would vote on the issue of
-software patents, Devedjian responded with an impassioned defense of
-copyright law, praising Victor Hugo for his role in the adoption of
-copyright.  (The misleading term <a href="/philosophy/not-ipr.html">
-&ldquo;intellectual property&rdquo;</a>, promotes this
-confusion&mdash;one reason it should never be used.)
+<em>A version of this article was first published in <cite>The
+Guardian</cite>, of London, on June 20, 2005.  It focused on the
+proposed European software patent directive.</em></p>
+
+<p>
+When politicians consider the question of software patents, they are
+usually voting blind; not being programmers, they don't understand
+what software patents really do.  They often think patents are similar
+to copyright law (&ldquo;except for some details&rdquo;)&mdash;which
+is not the case.  For instance, when I publicly asked Patrick
+Devedjian, then Minister for Industry in France, how France would vote
+on the issue of software patents, Devedjian responded with an
+impassioned defense of copyright law, praising Victor Hugo for his
+role in the adoption of copyright.  (The misleading
+term <a href="/philosophy/not-ipr.html"> &ldquo;intellectual
+property&rdquo;</a>, promotes this confusion&mdash;one reason it
+should never be used.)
 </p>
 
 <p>
-Those who imagine effects like those of copyright law cannot 
-grasp the real effects of software patents.  We can use Victor Hugo as
-an example to illustrate the difference.
+Those who imagine effects like those of copyright law cannot grasp the
+disastrous effects of software patents.  We can use Victor Hugo as an
+example to illustrate the difference.
 </p>
 
 <p>
 A novel and a modern complex program have certain points in common:
-each one is large, and implements many ideas.  So let's follow the
-analogy, and suppose that patent law had been applied to novels in the
-1800s; suppose that states such as France had permitted the patenting
-of literary ideas.  How would this have affected Victor Hugo's
-writing?  How would the effects of literary patents compare with the
-effects of literary copyright?
+each one is large, and implements many ideas in combination.  So let's
+follow the analogy, and suppose that patent law had been applied to
+novels in the 1800s; suppose that states such as France had permitted
+the patenting of literary ideas.  How would this have affected Victor
+Hugo's writing?  How would the effects of literary patents compare
+with the effects of literary copyright?
 </p>
 
 <p>
@@ -62,9 +55,9 @@
 wrote it, the copyright belonged only to him&mdash;nobody else.  He
 did not have to fear that some stranger could sue him for copyright
 infringement and win.  That was impossible, because copyright covers
-only the details of a work of authorship, and it only restricts
-copying.  Hugo had not copied Les Mis&eacute;rables, so he was not in
-danger.
+only the details of a work of authorship, not the ideas embodied in
+them, and it only restricts copying.  Hugo had not copied Les
+Mis&eacute;rables, so he was not in danger from copyright.
 </p>
 
 <p>
@@ -88,10 +81,11 @@
 
 <p>
 If such a patent had existed in 1862 when Les Mis&eacute;rables was
-published, the novel would have infringed all three claims, since all
-these things happened to Jean Valjean in the novel.  Victor Hugo could
-have been sued, and if sued, he would have lost.  The novel could have
-been prohibited&mdash;in effect, censored&mdash;by the patent holder.
+published, the novel would have conflicted with all three claims,
+since all these things happened to Jean Valjean in the novel.  Victor
+Hugo could have been sued, and if sued, he would have lost.  The novel
+could have been prohibited&mdash;in effect, censored&mdash;by the
+patent holder.
 </p>
 
 <p>
@@ -105,9 +99,9 @@
 </ul>
 
 <p>
-Les Mis&eacute;rables would have infringed that patent too, because
-this description too fits the life story of Jean Valjean.  And here's
-another hypothetical patent:
+Les Mis&eacute;rables would have been prohibited by that patent too,
+because this description too fits the life story of Jean Valjean.  And
+here's another hypothetical patent:
 </p>
 
 <ul>
@@ -117,7 +111,7 @@
 </ul>
 
 <p>
-Jean Valjean would have infringed this patent too.
+Jean Valjean would have been forbidden by this patent too.
 </p>
 
 <p>
@@ -129,7 +123,7 @@
 </p>
 
 <p>
-The novel would also have infringed this patent,
+This patent also could have violated this patent,
 </p>
 
 <ul>
@@ -166,7 +160,7 @@
 
 <p>
 However, a very broad patent could have made all these issues
-irrelevant.  Imagine patents with broad claims like these:
+irrelevant.  Imagine a patent with broad claims like these:
 </p>
 
 <ul>
@@ -187,7 +181,7 @@
 patents follow the real patent system, these patent holders would not
 have had to write novels, or stories, or anything&mdash;except patent
 applications.  Patent parasite companies, businesses that produce
-nothing except threats and lawsuits, are growing larger today.</p>
+nothing except threats and lawsuits, are booming nowadays.</p>
 
   <p> Given these broad patents, Victor Hugo would not have reached
 the point of asking what patents might get him sued for using the
@@ -198,54 +192,27 @@
 do. Software patents cover features, such as defining abbreviations in
 a word processor, or natural order recalculation in a spreadsheet.
 Patents cover algorithms that programs need to use.  Patents cover
-aspects of file formats, such as Microsoft's new formats for Word
-files.  MPEG 2 video format is covered by 39 different US patents.</p>
+aspects of file formats, such as Microsoft's OOXML format.  MPEG 2
+video format is covered by 39 different US patents.</p>
 
-<p>Just as one novel could infringe many different literary patents at
-once, one program can infringe many different patents at once.  It is
-so much work to identify all the patents infringed by a large program
-that only one such study has been done.  A 2004 study of Linux, the
-kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system, found it infringed 283
-different US software patents.  That is to say, each of these 283
-different patents covers some computational process found somewhere in
-the thousands of pages of source code of Linux.</p>
-
-<p>The text of the directive approved by the Council of Ministers
-clearly authorizes patents covering software techniques.
-(See <a 
href="http://eupat.ffii.org/xatra/cons0406/text/index.en.html";>http://eupat.ffii.org/xatra/cons0406/text/index.en.html</a>.)
-Its backers claim that the requirement for patents to have a
-&ldquo;technical character&rdquo; will exclude software patents, but
-it will not.  It is easy to describe a computer program in a
-&ldquo;technical&rdquo; way: The Boards of Appeal of the European
-Patent Office said (Case T 0258/03;
-<a 
href="http://legal.european-patent-office.org/dg3/pdf/t030258ex1.pdf";>http://legal.european-patent-office.org/dg3/pdf/t030258ex1.pdf</a>):</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-<p>
-   The Board is aware that its comparatively broad interpretation of
-   the term &ldquo;invention&rdquo; in Article 52(1) EPC will include
-   activities which are so familiar that their technical character
-   tends to be overlooked, such as the act of writing using pen and
-   paper.
-</p>
-</blockquote>
-
-<p> Any usable software can be &ldquo;loaded and executed in a
-computer, programmed computer network or other programmable
-apparatus&rdquo; in order to do its job, which is the criterion in
-article 5(2) of the directive for patents to prohibit even the
-publication of programs
-(<a 
href="http://eupat.ffii.org/papri/europarl0309/cons0401/tab/index.en.html";>http://eupat.ffii.org/papri/europarl0309/cons0401/tab/index.en.html</a>).
-</p>
+<p>Just as one novel could run afoul of many different literary patents at
+once, one program can be prohibited by many different patents at once.
+It is so much work to identify all the patents that appear to apply
+to a large program that only one such study has been done.  A 2004 study of
+Linux, the kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system, found 283
+different US software patents that seemed to cover it.  That is to
+say, each of these 283 different patents forbids some computational
+process found somewhere in the thousands of pages of source code of
+Linux.  And Linux was less than one percent of the GNU/Linux system.</p>
 
 <p>
 The way to prevent software patents from bollixing software
-development is simple: don't authorize them.  In the first reading, in
-2003, the European Parliament adopted the necessary amendments to
-exclude software patents, but the Council of Ministers reversed the
-decision.  Citizens of the EU should phone their MEPs without delay,
-urging them to sustain the parliament's previous decision in the
-second reading of the directive.
+development is simple: don't authorize them.  This ought to be easy,
+since most patent laws have provisions against software patents.  They
+typically say that &ldquo;software per se&rdquo; cannot be patented.
+But patent offices around the world are trying to twist the words and
+issuing patents on the ideas implemented in programs.  Unless this is
+blocked, the result will be to put all software developers in danger.
 </p>
 
 <!-- If needed, change the copyright block at the bottom. In general, -->
@@ -287,7 +254,7 @@
 <p>
 Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2008/09/18 18:12:04 $
+$Date: 2009/06/25 18:10:07 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>




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