Miscellaneous > The Lounge
Patents: Free Software under serious threat
Calum:
3 years ago, Europe was very much against software patents, recognising that the ill informed approach to doling out vague intellectual property rights would ultimately kill innovation, now it appears the European parliament no longer sees a need to protect the right to reinvent the wheel, potentially jeopardising projects such as GIMP, Mozilla and Linux/GNU.
read more and find out how you can make a difference here:
Free Software Support Group article
and here's a recent news article about it all:
Article on IDG.com.sg
HibbeeBoy:
Quote--: The U.S. and Japan allow patents on a much wider range of software, and they both permit patents for business methods. Business methods include innovations such as one-click purchasing, for which the online retailer Amazon.com Inc. received a patent in the U.S. in 1999.
Amazon used the patent to get an injunction against use of a similar purchasing feature by a rival, Barnesandnoble.com, but an appeals court lifted that injunction last year. --End quote
This is just plain dumb. How can a business process be patented ?
It's almost like they want to patent arithmetic. You know, 2+2=4 but you can't use that because "we" have a patent, you need to use 3+1 or 1+3 to equal 4. It's just stupid.
To patent the "progress bar" is just fucked up.
2 good articles.
M51DPS:
No you can't, I already have a patent for 3+1=4. This also mean that you can't use 1+3=4, because it's too similar to mine. You could try 0+4=4, but I think someone is going to get a patent for that one too soon. Looks like you might have to use subtraction.
Pantso:
Hear hear! Calum's (you know, the troll) article has been posted on Newforge!!
If only I were a troll like Calum! :(
Calum:
oh come on panos, we all know it's far more productive to shout down any opposition using swear words in capitals! my puerile attempts to spark a meaningful debate are simply trolling, it wastes everybody's time.
People, i urge you to fax or write (letters) to your MEPs, apparently your say counts more if you use real paper rather than email (???)
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