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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/savingeurope.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/savingeurope.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32e3730 --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/savingeurope.html @@ -0,0 +1,194 @@ +<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> +<!-- Parent-Version: 1.86 --> + +<title>Saving Europe from Software Patents - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> + +<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/savingeurope.translist" --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> + +<h2>Saving Europe from Software Patents</h2> + +<p> +Imagine that each time you made a software design decision, and +especially whenever you used an algorithm that you read in a journal +or implemented a feature that users ask for, you took a risk of being +sued.</p> +<p> +That's how it is today in the US, because of software patents. Soon +it may be the same in most of Europe (<a href="#ft1">1</a>). The +countries that operate the European Patent Office, spurred by large +companies and encouraged by patent lawyers, are moving to allow +patents covering mathematical computations.</p> +<p> +To block this move, European citizens must take action, and do it +soon—by talking with their national governments to raise +opposition to the change. Action in Germany, Sweden, Finland, the +Netherlands, and/or Denmark is especially important, to join a +campaign already under way in France.</p> +<p> +Patents have played havoc with free software already. During the +1980s, the patent holders for public key encryption entirely +suppressed free software for that job. They wanted to suppress +PGP too, but facing +public criticism, they accepted a compromise: adding restrictions to +PGP so that it was no longer free software. (We +began developing the GNU Privacy Guard after the broadest patent +expired.)</p> +<p> +Compuserve developed +GIF format for images, then was stunned when Unisys threatened +to sue them and everyone else who developed or ran software to produce +GIFs. Unisys had obtained a patent on +the LZW data compression +algorithm, which is one part of generating GIF format, +and refuses to permit free software to use LZW +(<a href="#ft2">2</a>). As a result, any free software in the US that +supports making true compressed GIFs is at risk of a +lawsuit.</p> +<p> +In the US and some other countries, free software +for MP3(<a href="#ft3">3</a>) is impossible; in 1998, US +developers who had developed free MP3-generation programs +were threatened with patent lawsuits, and forced to withdraw them. +Some are now distributed in European countries—but if the +European Patent Office makes this planned change, they may become +unavailable there too.</p> +<p> +Later in 1998, Microsoft menaced the World Wide Web, by obtaining a +patent affecting style sheets—after encouraging the WWW +Consortium to incorporate the feature in the standard. It's not the +first time that a standards group has been lured into a patent's maw. +Public reaction convinced Microsoft to back down from enforcing this +patent; but we can't count on mercy every time.</p> +<p> +The list could go on and on, if I had time to look through my old mail +for examples and space to describe them.</p> +<p> +On the issue of patents, free software developers can make common +cause with most proprietary software developers, because in general +they too stand to lose from patents. So do the many developers of +specialized custom software.</p> +<p> +To be sure, not everyone loses from software patents; if that were so, +the system would soon be abolished. Large companies often have many +patents, and can force most other companies, large or small, to +cross-license with them. They escape most of the trouble patents +cause, while enjoying a large share of the power patents confer. This +is why the chief supporters of software patents are multinational +corporations. They have a great deal of influence with governments.</p> +<p> +Occasionally a small company benefits from a patent, if its product is +so simple that it escapes infringing the large companies' patents and +thus being forced to cross-license with them. And patent owners who +develop no products, but only squeeze money out of those who do, can +laugh all the way to the bank while obstructing progress.</p> +<p> +But most software developers, as well as users, lose from software +patents, which do more to obstruct software progress than to encourage +it.</p> +<p> +People used to call free software an absurd idea, saying we lacked the +ability to develop a large amount of software. We have refuted them +with empirical fact, by developing a broad range of powerful software +that respects users' freedom. Giving the public the full spectrum of +general-purpose software is within our reach—unless giving +software to the public is prohibited.</p> +<p> +Software patents threaten to do that. The time to take action is now. +Please visit <a href="http://www.ffii.org/">www.ffii.org</a> for more +information, plus detailed suggestions for action. And please take +time to help.</p> + +<h4>Footnotes:</h4> + +<ol> +<li id="ft1">The European Patent Office, used by many European +countries, has issued quite a number of patents that affect software, +which were presented as something other than software patents. The +change now being considered would open the door to unlimited patenting +of algorithms and software features, which would greatly increase the +number of software patents issued.</li> + +<li id="ft2">Unisys issued a cleverly worded statement which is +often taken to permit free software for making GIFs, but +which I believe does not do so. I wrote to their legal department to +ask for clarification and/or a change in the policy, but received no +reply.</li> + +<li id="ft3">As of 2017 the patents on playing MP3 files have +reportedly expired.</li> +</ol> + +<hr /> +<h4><a href="/philosophy/philosophy.html">Other Texts to Read</a></h4> +<ul> + <li>Get the latest threats to Europe's internet + from <a href="http://www.ffii.org">ffii.org</a></li> +</ul> + +</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> + +<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> +<div id="footer"> +<div class="unprintable"> + +<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to +<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. +There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> +the FSF. 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