[GNU/FSF Press] FSF welcomes Supreme Court watchers to a post Bilski party

Free Software Foundation welcomes Supreme Court watchers to a post
Bilski party

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Monday, June 28, 2010 -- For Supreme Court
watchers, following Bilski has been like following the World Cup.
Productivity has fallen and ulcers have grown. Later this morning, the
Supreme Court is expected to finally deliver some relief with a landmark
ruling.

At the Free Software Foundation we are welcoming Bilski watchers to a
lunchtime party to reflect on the ruling. Anti-software patent
campaigners will either be rejoicing together with some bubbly and news
that software patents have been limited, or be crying into their beer
discussing plans for the next stage in the twenty-year campaign to bring
some sanity to the world of software. Either way, we're happy for
like-minded visitors to join us.

The Bilski decision is expected to be a milestone, for better or worse,
in the decades-long effort to rid the software world of the harmful
effects of software patents.

The FSF's own End Software Patents (ESP) campaign has been focused on
the Bilski case from its beginning, attempting to bring consideration to
software patents in a case that was originally about business method
patents. (http://endsoftpatents.org)

ESP submitted a strong anti-software patent brief for the 2008 hearing
of the In re Bilski case at the CAFC. After the CAFC gave a relatively
hopeful ruling, ESP started building its wiki to collect information and
resources for all campaigns against software patents.

To many people's surprise, the Supreme Court decided in 2009 to review
the CAFC decision. ESP again submitted a brief, highlighting the CAFC's
continued misreading of Diamond v. Diehr and the real harm being caused
in the USA by software patents.

The launch of our 2010 film "Patent Absurdity: How software patents
broke the system" (http://patentabsurdity.com) also helped explain the
history of software patents-and the problems they cause. The film has
been downloaded more than 100,000 times since its release and has
inspired other anti-software patent campaigners to distribute the movie
to top US patent policy makers.

Whatever the Supreme Court decides, it's clear that this issue won't end
anytime soon. Congress is considering a patent reform bill, and the US
government has been working to push its software patent laws to other
countries through treaties like ACTA.

The Surpeme Court has kept us biting our nails since the November
hearing. Today is the last day for the court to publish opinions this
term. If you'd like to sit on the edge of a seat in the FSF office with
the rest of us, you'd be very welcome.

The FSF office is at 51 Franklin Street, 5th Floor, in downtown Boston.
Check our contact page for directions and more information about visiting.

You can follow our analysis of the ruling at:
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Bilski:_analysis_of_Supreme_Cour...


About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as
in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its
GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF
also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org
and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux.
Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at
http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

Media Contacts

Peter Brown
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 319 5832
campaigns@fsf.org

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