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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

 

U.S.: Software Patent Abolition Campaign To Be Launched Soon.

Concerning the political debate on patents on computer-implemented inventions (aka "software patents") there had been some period of relative calmness since the failure of the EU Draft Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions in 2005.

This might EXTERNAL LINKchange soon:
"[...] What could make the Free Software Foundation (FSF), proprietary software companies, and at least one venture capitalist into allies? The End Software Patents (ESP) coalition, a new organization poised to swing into action next month under the leadership of Ben Klemens.

The campaign currently has seed funding of a quarter million dollars from sources those associated with the group won't disclose, and hopes to augment that with donations from individuals and companies for a struggle that, to judge by the usual amount of time it takes to push major changes through the US Supreme Court, could take five years or more to complete. [...]"
It is reported that according to ESP organizers, there has never been a better time to challenge software patents directly in the United States:
"[...] The current state of software patents came into existence in early 1990s in In re Alappat, in which a lower court ruled that, if an algorithm 'includes a physical step of any sort, then that is as physical a process as any machine or chemical,' Klemens says. This was a reversal of the legal assumption that had prevailed until then that a computer algorithm was as distinct from the physical action that produced it as a musician's song is from the process of recording it.

This sweeping change took a while to assimilate. It was not until several years into the new millennium that the full implications became obvious and the current atmosphere of trivial patents and patent troll companies really got underway.

The current patent culture was challenged in 2005 when the Supreme Court heard LabCorp v. Metabolite, a case that turned on what Klemens calls 'a pathetically trivial physical step.' In the end, the Supreme Court did not issue a ruling due to technicalities peculiar to the case, but, as Klemens says, 'It does indicate that the Supreme Court takes seriously the problem of drawing a line that says that some things we humans do should not be patentable.' Klemens adds that 'Every pundit I've met agrees that the Supreme Court is looking for a case to replace [LabCorp v. Metabolite]'.

'On the legislative front, we've seen a number of bills for patent reform get shot down in the last few years. Reform is desperately needed, but it is stalled - and it's because of soft patents that it is stalled. Once we restore a rule that not everything can be patented, the rest of patent reform will either fall into place naturally or be much easier to fix.'

'The burden of pushing to fix this mess falls upon us, the programmers, because we are hit hardest by soft patents. But this is a thorn in the side of the entire US economy. A number of the financial contributors to our campaign to date are nowhere near the software industry.' [...]"
It currently appears as if the ESP coalition does not even have launched something like an ESP website but the EXTERNAL LINKpublic echo throughout the Internet is significant.

Obiously the ESP coalition EXTERNAL LINKis looking for examples of innovative and profitable software companies that have been successful without any patent activity of any sort. While they admit that this success doesn't necessarily correlate with a desire to abolish software patents, they want to better understand real life examples of successful companies that don't care about software patents.

I could offer them EXTERNAL LINKa list of four successful UK companies explicitly seeking patents on computer-implemented inventions but, of course, that surely is not what those ESP folk would like to have.

(Original link thanks to EXTERNAL LINKInnovationpartners.)

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Die angesprochenen Firmen sind in der Trollkategorie. Das kann doch nicht ihr Ernst sein. Die verbliebene Lobby-Front für Softwarepatente ist klar: Nokia, Microsoft, (Siemens, SAP). Im Mittelstand haben Softwarepatente keine wirtschaftliche Basis.

Es gibt eine starke finanzielle Unterstützung in den USA für Lobbying in dieser Richtung. AFFII und andere Organisationen des ESP Netzwerkes bereiten eine Petition und Kampagne vor.

AFFII Website wird hier vorbereitet.
http://affii.wikidot.com/
 
INTERNAL LINK# posted by Anonymous Podmok : 20 November, 2007 11:58
 

 

 

It is a waste to spend money and time and other resources on the false existence of that which is based upon a lie.

The lie being that software is of patent-able qualities. Software is not of such qualities.

To use an analogy, the roman numeral system, in comparison to the hindu-arabic decimal system, is far to limiting to have been used to calculate the information we needed for us to have created much of what we have today, including computers. Yet it took 300 years for the more powerful and easier to use decimal system to overcome the wide use of the roman numeral system in mathematics and the elite accountants industry.

The key difference was the zero place holder. And of course it was easy to argue that only a fool would think nothing can have value.

Numbers and mathematics are abstractions and programming is also done using nothing but abstraction. Only here the abstractions used extend beyond math, though many will point out that it boils down to a mathematical algorithm.

What would happen should someone come along with the programming zero, that would make programming easy and powerful enough that most anyone can and would do it as they found need to. No different than using a calculator for any calculation one might need at the moment, or spreadsheet calculation, etc..

Non-novel would become more common, there would be a lot more "skilled in the art" or programming, etc.

But ultimately, software is not of patentable qualities as it is entirely made up of abstract ideas, using the natural law and right of human conscious ability to create not just abstraction but higher and higher levels of abstraction. All this has a physical phenomenon effect upon society (if in doubt, google the "trillion dollar bet" and read the transcript and realize the far reaching effect of this abstraction manipulation of value representation).

What is universally accepted as not being patentable:
three primary:
abstract ideas
Physical phenomenon
natural law
secondary:
mathematical algorithms

What happens when you try to contradict physics and nature? You have problems and even death!

It is of no surprise there are problems being caused with software patenting. It's predictable in a very calculating manner.

The mathematical zero, how simple it is, yet how empowering it is also to a small finite set of abstractions and their use.

So about the programming "zero" well its not just for programmers, but rather an identification of a human quality in ability to create and use abstractions. google "Abstraction Physics".
 
INTERNAL LINK# posted by Anonymous Tim Rue : 09 March, 2008 17:48
 
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