From 1ae0306a3cf2ea27f60b2d205789994d260c2cce Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christian Grothoff Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2020 13:29:45 +0200 Subject: add i18n FSFS --- .../blog/articles/en/guardian-article.html | 204 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 204 insertions(+) create mode 100644 talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/guardian-article.html (limited to 'talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/guardian-article.html') diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/guardian-article.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/guardian-article.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d606138 --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/guardian-article.html @@ -0,0 +1,204 @@ + + +Guardian Article on Software Patents +- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation + + +

Opposing The European Software Patent Directive

+ +

by Richard +Stallman and Nick Hill

+ +
+

+The European Union software patent directive, which this 2003 article +opposed, was ultimately dropped by its own supporters after facing +lots of opposition. However, they later found another way to impose +software patents on most of Europe: through fine print in +the unitary +patent.

+
+ +

+The computer industry is threatened by a Wild West-style land grab. The +biggest, richest companies are being assisted by governments to take +unassailable exclusive control of the ideas that programmers combine to +make a program.

+ +

+Our society is becoming more dependent on information technology. At +the same time, centralised control over and ownership of the +information technology field is increasing, and mega-corporations with +law-given dominion over our computers could take away our freedoms and +democracy. With an effective monopoly on modern software, the largest +grabbers of the “land” will have control over what we can +ask our computers to do, and control over production and distribution +of information on the net, through monopolies that the EU plans to +give them.

+ +

+The monopolies are patents, each one restricting use of one or several +of these software ideas. We call them “software patents” +because they restrict what we programmers can make software do. How do +these monopolies work? If you wish to use your computer as a word +processor, it must follow instructions that tell it how to act like a +word processor. This is analogous to instructions found on a musical +score, which tell an orchestra how to play a symphony. The +instructions are not simple. They are made up of thousands of smaller +instructions, much like sequences of notes and chords. A symphonic +score embodies hundreds of musical ideas, and a computer program uses +hundreds or thousands of software ideas. Since each idea is abstract, +there are often different ways to describe it: thus, some ideas can be +patented in multiple ways.

+ +

+The US, which has had software patents since the 1980s, shows what this can +do to development of everyday software. For example, in the US there are 39 +monopoly claims over a standard way of showing video using software +techniques (the MPEG +2 format).

+ +

+Since a single piece of software can embody thousands of ideas together, +and those ideas are arbitrary in scope and abstract in nature, writing +software will only be worthwhile for those who are rich and have a large +software monopoly portfolio: those with the war chest and clout to fight +off claims that might otherwise sink a business. In the US, the average +cost of defending against an invalid patent claim is $1.5 million. The +courts favour the wealthy, so even when a small business gets a few +patents, it will find them useless.

+ +

+Software patents are being claimed at a tremendous rate in the US. If they +become legal in Europe, most of those US patents will be extended to +Europe also. This is likely to have a devastating effect on European +software development—leading to job losses, a poorer economy, more +expensive computer use, and less choice and less freedom for the end user. +The advocates of software patents in Europe, and the probable beneficiaries +of them, are the patent bureaucracy (more influence on more areas of life), +patent lawyers (more business from both plaintiffs and defendants), and +computer mega-corporations such as IBM and Microsoft.

+ +

+Foremost among the software mega-corporations is Microsoft. Even as +part of the European commission investigates Microsoft for +monopolistic practices, another part is planning to hand it an +unending series of overlapping 20-year monopolies. Bill Gates wrote in +his Challenges and Strategy memo of May 16 1991 that

+ +
+

+If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of +today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry +would be at a complete standstill today. The solution … is +patenting as much as we can … A future start-up with no patents +of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to +impose.

+
+ +

+Today Microsoft hopes to parlay software patents into a permanent +monopoly on many areas of software.

+ +

+The European commission says its proposed directive on +computer-implemented inventions will disallow software patents. But +the text was actually written by the Business Software Alliance, which +represents the largest software companies. (The commission didn't +admit this—we detected it.) It contains vague words that we +suspect are designed to open the door for software patents.

+ +

+The text says that computer-related patents must make a +“technical contribution”; the commission says that means +“no software patents”. But “technical” can be +interpreted in many ways. The European patent office is already +registering software patents of dubious legal validity, defying the +treaty that governs it and the governments that established it. +Operating under those words, it will stretch them to allow all kinds +of software patents.

+ +

+Arlene McCarthy, MEP +for north-west England, has been a key figure promoting and acting as +rapporteur for this proposed directive. The cosmetic changes she has +so far proposed do nothing to solve the problem. However, the +cultural affairs commission's amendment that defines +“technical” will assure British and European software +developers that they will not risk a lawsuit simply by writing and +distributing a software package.

+ +

+The vague words drafted by the mega-corporations must be replaced with +clear, decisive wording. Wording that will ensure that our information +future will not be hijacked by the interests of a few rich organisations.

+ +

+Please go +to http://www.softwarepatents.co.uk [Archived Page] to learn more, and then talk with the MEPs from +your region.

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