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diff --git a/src/frontend_blog/articles/scrap1_24.html b/src/frontend_blog/articles/scrap1_24.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a1e6ff22 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/frontend_blog/articles/scrap1_24.html @@ -0,0 +1,278 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/loose.dtd"> +<html> +<!-- This is the second edition of Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman. + +Free Software Foundation + +51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor + +Boston, MA 02110-1335 +Copyright C 2002, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. +Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire book are permitted +worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice is +preserved. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations +of this book from the original English into another language provided +the translation has been approved by the Free Software Foundation and +the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all +copies. + +ISBN 978-0-9831592-0-9 +Cover design by Rob Myers. + +Cover photograph by Peter Hinely. + --> +<!-- Created on February 18, 2016 by texi2html 1.82 +texi2html was written by: + Lionel Cons <Lionel.Cons@cern.ch> (original author) + Karl Berry <karl@freefriends.org> + Olaf Bachmann <obachman@mathematik.uni-kl.de> + and many others. +Maintained by: Many creative people. +Send bugs and suggestions to <texi2html-bug@nongnu.org> +--> +<head> +<title>Free Software, Free Society, 2nd ed.: 24. Software Patents and Literary Patents</title> + +<meta name="description" content="This is the second edition of Richard Stallman's collection of essays."> +<meta name="keywords" content="Free Software, Free Society, 2nd ed.: 24. Software Patents and Literary Patents"> +<meta name="resource-type" content="document"> +<meta name="distribution" content="global"> +<meta name="Generator" content="texi2html 1.82"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} +blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} +pre.display {font-family: serif} +pre.format {font-family: serif} +pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} +pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} +pre.smalldisplay {font-family: serif; font-size: smaller} +pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} +pre.smallformat {font-family: serif; font-size: smaller} +pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} +span.roman {font-family:serif; font-weight:normal;} +span.sansserif {font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal;} +ul.toc {list-style: none} +--> +</style> +<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../style.css"> + + +</head> + +<body lang="en" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000"> + +<a name="SPLP"></a> +<header><div id="logo"><img src="../gnu.svg" height="100" width="100"></div><h1>Free Software, Free Society, 2nd ed.</h1></header><section id="main"><a name="Software-Patents-and-Literary-Patents"></a> +<h1 class="chapter"> 24. Software Patents and Literary Patents </h1> + +<a name="index-patents_002c-analogy-between-literary-and-software"></a> +<a name="index-Hugo_002c-Victor"></a> +<a name="index-patents_002c-proposed-European-Union-software-patents-directive-1"></a> +<a name="index-European-Union_002c-proposed-European-Union-software-patents-directive-1"></a> +<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 (“except for some details”)—which +is not the case. For instance, when I publicly asked +<a name="index-Devedjian_002c-Minister-Patrick"></a> +Patrick +Devedjian, then Minister for Industry in +<a name="index-France-1"></a> +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 “intellectual property” promotes this confusion—one of the reasons it +should never be used.) +</p> +<p>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 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> +<a name="index-Les-Miserables_002c-Victor-Hugo"></a> +<p>Consider Victor Hugo’s novel <cite>Les Misérables.</cite> Since he +wrote it, the copyright belonged only to him. 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, not the ideas embodied in +them, and it only restricts copying. Hugo had not copied <cite>Les +Misérables,</cite> so he was not in danger from copyright. +</p> +<p>Patents work differently. Patents cover ideas; each patent is a +monopoly on practicing some idea, which is described in the patent +itself. Here’s one example of a hypothetical literary patent: +</p> +<ul> +<li> +Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the concept of a character who has been in jail for a long time and becomes bitter towards society and humankind. + +</li><li> +Claim 2: a communication process according to claim 1, wherein said character subsequently finds moral redemption through the kindness of another. + +</li><li> +Claim 3: a communication process according to claims 1 and 2, wherein said character changes his name during the story. + +</li></ul> +<a name="index-Valjean_002c-literary-character-Jean-_0028see-also-Les-Miserables_0029"></a> +<p>If such a patent had existed in 1862 when <cite>Les Misérables</cite> was +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—in effect, censored—by the +patent holder. +</p> +<p>Now consider this hypothetical literary patent: +</p> +<ul> +<li> Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the concept of a character who has been in jail for a long time and subsequently changes his name. +</li></ul> +<p><cite>Les Misérables</cite> 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> +<li> +Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the concept of a character who finds moral redemption and then changes his name. +</li></ul> +<p>Jean Valjean would have been forbidden by this patent too. +</p> +<p>All three patents would cover, and prohibit, the life story of this one +character. They overlap, but they do not precisely duplicate each other, +so they could all be valid simultaneously; all three patent holders +could have sued Victor Hugo. Any one of them could have prohibited +publication of <cite>Les Misérables.</cite> +</p> +<p>This patent also could have been violated: +</p> +<ul> +<li> +Claim 1: a communication process that presents a character whose given name matches the last syllable of his family name. +</li></ul> +<p>through the name “Jean Valjean,” but at least this patent +would have been easy to avoid. +</p> +<p>You might think that these ideas are so simple that no patent office +would have issued them. We programmers are often amazed by the +simplicity of the ideas that real software patents cover—for +instance, the +<a name="index-European-Patent-Office"></a> +European Patent Office has issued a patent on the +progress bar, and a patent on accepting payment via credit cards. +These patents would be laughable if they were not so dangerous. +</p> +<p>Other aspects of <cite>Les Misérables</cite> could also have +run afoul of +patents. For instance, there could have been a patent on a +fictionalized portrayal of the Battle of Waterloo, or a patent on +using Parisian slang in fiction. Two more lawsuits. In fact, there +is no limit to the number of different patents that might have been +applicable for suing the author of a work such as <cite>Les +Misérables.</cite> All the patent holders would say they deserved a +reward for the literary progress that their patented ideas represent, +but these obstacles would not promote progress in literature, they +would only obstruct it. +</p> +<p>However, a very broad patent could have made all these issues +irrelevant. Imagine a patent with broad claims like these: + +</p> +<ul> +<li> +A communication process structured with narration that continues +through many pages. + +</li><li> +A narration structure sometimes resembling a fugue or +improvisation. + +</li><li> +Intrigue articulated around the confrontation of specific +characters, each in turn setting traps for the others. + +</li><li> +Narration that presents many layers of society. + +</li><li> +Narration that shows the wheels of hidden conspiracy. + +</li></ul> +<p>Who would the patent holders have been? They could have been +other novelists, perhaps Dumas or Balzac, who had written such +novels—but not necessarily. It isn’t required to write a +program to patent a software idea, so if our hypothetical literary +patents follow the real patent system, these patent holders would not +have had to write novels, or stories, or anything—except patent +applications. Patent parasite companies, businesses that produce +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 +character of Jean Valjean, because he could not even have considered +writing a novel of this kind. +<a name="index-Valjean_002c-literary-character-Jean-_0028see-also-Les-Miserables_0029-1"></a> +<a name="index-Les-Miserables_002c-Victor-Hugo-1"></a> +<a name="index-Hugo_002c-Victor-1"></a> +</p> +<p>This analogy can help nonprogrammers see what software patents +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 +<a name="index-Microsoft_002c-OOXML-format-_0028see-also-patents_0029"></a> +OOXML format. +<a name="index-MPEG_002d2"></a> +MPEG 2 +video format is covered by 39 different US patents. +</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 +<a name="index-kernel_002c-Linux-2"></a> +<a name="index-Linux-kernel-2"></a> +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. At the time, Linux was around 1 percent of the whole +GNU/Linux system. How many patents might there be that a distributor +of the whole system could be sued under? +</p> +<a name="index-call-to-action_002c-do-not-authorize-software-patents"></a> +<p>The way to prevent software patents from bollixing software +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 “software per se” 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. +<a name="index-patents_002c-analogy-between-literary-and-software-1"></a> +</p><hr size="2"> +<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0"> +<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_23.html#Trivial-Patent" title="Previous section in reading order"> < </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_25.html#DSP" title="Next section in reading order"> > </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[Contents]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_U.4.html#Index" title="Index">Index</a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td> +</tr></table> +<p> + <font size="-1"> + This document was generated by <em>Christian Grothoff</em> on <em>February 18, 2016</em> using <a href="http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/"><em>texi2html 1.82</em></a>. + </font> + <br> + +</p> +</body> +</html> |