Dispatches from the software patent front

[Posted May 23, 2005 by corbet]

The software patent battle in Europe is heating up again as the July 6 vote in the European Parliament approaches. There will be a demonstration in Brussels (and elsewhere) on June 2 as a way of pressuring the parliament on this issue. The day before that, the FFII and others will be hosting a conference on patent policy making, again in Brussels.

Meanwhile, here's a Reuters article on the debate. "However, companies such as Microsoft and Apple Computer argue that they need broader patent protection to prevent open-source companies, which give away their software and make money through service, from effectively expropriating their development costs."

Dispatches from the software patent front

Posted May 23, 2005 14:24 UTC (Mon) by pontus (guest, #3701) [Link]

From the article:

Said one European Commission official: "Rich companies gobble up the patents. Patent protection is about financial means. Copyright is the true reward for creativity."

And well said too!

Apple an enemy of open source?

Posted May 23, 2005 17:21 UTC (Mon) by chel (guest, #11544) [Link] (2 responses)

Apples aurgument for patents to defend them against Open Source initiatives stealing their ideas is strange. On the Apple site http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/ I read:
"Mac OS X Server version 10.4 ?Tiger? offers 200+ new features and builds on more than 100 of the latest open source projects."
and
"The power and simplicity of Mac OS X Server begin with a UNIX-based foundation built around the Mach microkernel and the latest advances from the open source BSD community."

Apple an enemy of open source?

Posted May 23, 2005 17:26 UTC (Mon) by ccchips (subscriber, #3222) [Link]

Thanks for teaching us all about corn. Now, go sit on that reservation......

Apple an enemy of open source?

Posted May 24, 2005 8:21 UTC (Tue) by mwh (guest, #582) [Link]

Yeah, I thought that was odd.

The quoted text seems to be inspired by things the Business Software Alliance said, and Apple
and Microsoft are members of the BSA, so they must think the same too.

OTOH, Apple certainly own lots of patents.

Dispatches from the software patent front

Posted May 25, 2005 9:16 UTC (Wed) by jneves (guest, #2859) [Link]

Obviously it's a misconstructed phrase, I just thought that Microsoft and Apple were crazy if defending something like that:

"to prevent open-source companies (...) from effectively expropriating their development costs."

Anyone can expropriate my costs any time. I'll even thank them...