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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/software-literary-patents.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/software-literary-patents.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c36f566 --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/software-literary-patents.html @@ -0,0 +1,284 @@ +<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> +<!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 --> +<title>Software Patents and Literary Patents - GNU Project - +Free Software Foundation</title> +<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/software-literary-patents.translist" --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> +<h2>Software Patents and Literary Patents</h2> + +<p>by <strong><a href="http://stallman.org/">Richard Stallman</a></strong></p> + +<p> +<em>The first version of this article was published in +<cite>The Guardian</cite>, of London, on June 23, 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 (“except for some details”)—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"> “intellectual +property”</a> 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> + +<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> + +<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 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.</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 OOXML format. 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 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 one 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> + +<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. +</p> + +<hr /> +<blockquote id="fsfs"><p class="big">This essay is published +in <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/product/free-software-free-society/"><cite>Free +Software, Free Society: The Selected Essays of Richard +M. Stallman</cite></a>.</p></blockquote> + +</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. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent +to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> + +<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, + replace it with the translation of these two: + + We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality + translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. + Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard + to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> + <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> + + <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of + our web pages, see <a + href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations + README</a>. --> +Please see the <a +href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations +README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting translations +of this article.</p> +</div> + +<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to + files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should + be under CC BY-ND 3.0 US. Please do NOT change or remove this + without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. + Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the + document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the + document was modified, or published. + + If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. + Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying + years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable + year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including + being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). + + There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers + Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> + +<p>Copyright © 2005, 2007, 2008 Richard Stallman</p> + +<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" +href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creative +Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License</a>.</p> + +<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> + +<p class="unprintable">Updated: +<!-- timestamp start --> +$Date: 2014/04/12 12:40:46 $ +<!-- timestamp end --> +</p> +</div> +</div> +</body> +</html> |