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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_24.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_24.html deleted file mode 100644 index 8d27662..0000000 --- a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_24.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,289 +0,0 @@ -<!-- 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. - --> - - - <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"/> - |