European software patent update [LWN.net]

European software patent update

Posted Jan 28, 2005 18:16 UTC (Fri) by bjlucier (subscriber, #5281)
Parent article: European software patent update

This should be a free article.

to post comments

European software patent update

Posted Jan 28, 2005 18:23 UTC (Fri) by BrucePerens (guest, #2510) [Link] (1 responses)

Jon, I have to concur. Due to the timely nature - action required on Monday - it would be helpful to unset the subscribers-only flag on this article.

Thanks

Bruce

European software patent update

Posted Jan 28, 2005 20:21 UTC (Fri) by daniel (guest, #3181) [Link]

Agreed, and as I just verified, it is. By the way, has everybody signed the "Thank Poland" web letter?

http://thankpoland.info/

Regards,

Daniel

SOFTWARE PATENTS ARE NEEDED

Posted Jan 31, 2005 11:33 UTC (Mon) by Smokeskull (guest, #27580) [Link] (2 responses)

The GPL is about giving away software that you write, not about stealing other people's work.

Come on now people. You expect to gain respect for the Linux community by supporting anarchy and theft? Not good.

Lets face it. This whole idea that no patents should be allowed is predicated by the fact that Linux is a hodgepodge of stolen source code. Don't kid yourselves. There is no moral high ground or higher purpose here. It is plain old "I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar, now I need to lie my way out of it".

SOFTWARE PATENTS ARE NEEDED

Posted Jan 31, 2005 14:16 UTC (Mon) by rmt (guest, #27583) [Link]

You are in violation of my patent on the process of trolling on web forums (EU-65783). You have no right to troll on web forums without purchasing a license from me. You are a thief and an anarchist.

you mean COPYRIGHT is needed

Posted Feb 5, 2005 11:17 UTC (Sat) by raboofje (guest, #26972) [Link]

Patents are not intented to fight stealing source code - that's what Copyright is for. Stealing source code is sufficiently protected.

Patents are supposed to protect innovative ideas (not code). If you have a patent on an idea, no-one else may commercialize that idea, even if he invented it independently.

That's why patents should only be granted on non-trivial ideas for a limited period of time. Personally I basically agree that software-ideas should be patentable in some situations, but the current text allows too much misuse.