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-- petition against software patents

petition against software patents

In the European Union it has to now been illegal to have Software patents. Unfortunately they may change this, that would be a serious setback for the open computer industry in Europe. Please help this stop, the software industry needs more competition, not less!

Sign here:
http://petition.eurolinux.org/index_html?LANG=en

If you live somewhere more close, go demonstrate!
http://demo.ffii.org/

yeah i know i posted this in cor too, but this is just to important

thanks

I dunno cos I was thinking of taking out a patent for an idea which would mainly be based on software. You do need to have some form of IPR for things like that. And remember an idea has to be new for it to be patented so you can't for example patent an existing program or whatever. Although in america it basicly comes down to how good your lawyer is. And of course you can extend your ptent in may cases.

But I do agree that you shouldn't be able to

quote:

patent business methods, education methods, health methods

As you can in america, which is just scary.

hehe as a fellow programer I say GOD NO!!!!!!!!!!!! To no patents for software.


Believe me, I've tried to patent a few of my own programs - its not that easy.. your idea really does have to be new and specific.

And most the times its just better to keep it a trade secret than a patent.

Afterall, trade secrets don't expire

Hehehe I would do that if I could but a rip off would be easy. I'm looking to do it as a device rather than a software patent really though. As the actual software isn't really that complicated. If I was going to patent it I'd follow the time honoured tradition of patenting it in a weird language in an obscure place.

quote:

Originally posted by Dervish Hehehe I would do that if I could but a rip off would be easy. I'm looking to do it as a device rather than a software patent really though. As the actual software isn't really that complicated. If I was going to patent it I'd follow the time honoured tradition of patenting it in a weird language in an obscure place.

Heh, you do your own software too?

I dunno device patents are cheaper.. but I don't know if you can do them. Ask a real patent lawyer.

Though what I never understood, if you are a British subject, why don't you just move to the Caymans and code there with no tax?

Thats what I plan to do once I have enough money... but you need to get immigration papers if your not a British subject

Cool never knew you could do that.

The software I do is for embedded systems like microcontrollers

quote:

Originally posted by Dervish Cool never knew you could do that. The software I do is for embedded systems like microcontrollers

yea SHHH ... don't tell anyone else.

I think if a lot of people find this out and move there, I'll never have a chance to get immigration papers - my dream would be over

Hehehe yeah.......what Cayman Islands? Never heard of emm.

you are biased

seriously, i have seen some really basic examples of software patents in the US, for example ""natural order recalculation" used in spreadsheets."

that is just sick. =)

and besides, you still got your copyright protection... i like the comparasion with books, what if you could take patent on a certain kind of murder for example, wouldn't that be just sick and destroy a lot of potential books that could be better but use this "special kind of murder" in it?

Yeah exactly thats scary stuff. But you can only do it for new stuff. Plus if you provide the same "functionallity" but do it a differnt way it's ok. So unless the murder was conducted by the same family member the same way and so on and so forth it would be ok. But I do kinda get the point tho cos big bussiness can just enforce or escape any patents it likes.

quote:

Originally posted by Dervish Yeah exactly thats scary stuff. But you can only do it for new stuff. Plus if you provide the same "functionallity" but do it a differnt way it's ok. So unless the murder was conducted by the same family member the same way and so on and so forth it would be ok. But I do kinda get the point tho cos big bussiness can just enforce or escape any patents it likes.

yeah so it will only protect big companies and make it harder for small programmers to make a good piece of software.

the problem is also with different formats, for example opening .doc on linux or playing .rm on a non realplayer player etc. it just makes it harder for competition.

Supose. But surely the EU will make sure it doesn't effect compition via formmats and compatablity. Anyway I have to sleep, but it's pretty interesting actually.

quote:

Originally posted by St_Andrew the problem is also with different formats, for example opening .doc on linux or playing .rm on a non realplayer player etc. it just makes it harder for competition.

Actually you can do both on linux.

quote:

Originally posted by trancaholic Actually you can do both on linux.

yeah i know, i don't even have windows on my computer anymore

quote:

Originally posted by Dervish Supose. But surely the EU will make sure it doesn't effect compition via formmats and compatablity. Anyway I have to sleep, but it's pretty interesting actually.

actually, i'm not sure. i know they have a lot of problems with that in the US. All US linux distrubations have stoped to ship it with support for .mp3, .avi (okay .doc still works for them...) etc. so nowadays they (US people, or people with a US dist like fedora) are downloading these "plugins" from european servers, and if this law go trough it may be an end to that and a big setback for the open source industry...

Wow never knew about that. See they way I'd see it is like what I'd call a specification. Like a bus specification. And to me a file format is a specification. You can't own a patent for that. But if you had a program which did something amazing with that file format then you could patent that.

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