[wplug] mailing list submission

[Ryan Moszynski]

Software patents are the biggest danger to Free/OS Software today(along 
with hardware incompatibility by design).  Your reasoning that they are 
not a problem because there hasn't been much of a stink (in the media) 
about them lately is shortsighted.  For one thing Free software projects 
do everything they can to avoid patent infringement, when 1.)they think 
that the resulting possibility for lawsuit is very high, and 2.)they 
think that the possible resulting lawsuits have a certain chance of 
success.  What is the criteria for these decisions?  I don't know, but I 
do know that Eben Moglen and his team at the Software Freedom Law Center 
(http://www.softwarefreedom.org/) are very good at what they do and the 
advice they give, and that advice keeps them from having to fight many 
claims in court.  They pick there battles carefully.  While this 
proactive approach has proven effective, you're right that there very 
well be a major test to free software in the form of a patent 
infringement lawsuit.  There are several ways that that could come 
about, but I think that the biggest potential problems could come from 
the fact that if software patents are allowed to be made into 
enforceable law around the world, there are so many patents, and since 
many are by design intentionally vague, well funded lawyers could very 
well argue for the rest of eternity of behalf of their clients even 
without a leg to stand on (see SCO, not really the same thing but an 
example of a colossal nuisance.)  Patents in the case of software are 
vague and mysterious.  Their potential to tie up valuable resources is 
tremendous, and as decisions about them continue to be made by 
governments around the world, the danger they pose is something all of 
us should be aware of.  If 20 years from now free software isn't where 
it should, and I assume we all hope, it will be, i think that if that 
happens it will be the result of complacency toward key issues and 
values like the one evidenced in this post I am responding to.  Don't 
fall into that trap, appreciate what we have now and work to keep it, 
don't just hope.



Please consider:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/fighting-software-patents.html

also, for a more in depth consideration of the subject in genral:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/stallman-patents.html

p.s.-> this is a long read but worth it if you are really interested in 
this issue, as all programmers as well as users of free software should 
be.  You can also find audio recordings of similar speeches by stallman 
at gnu.org. 



re:

While software patents are not good, I think their threat is to open
> source software is highly, highly overrated. There are a lot of
> companies, government and educational institutions that are dependent on
> open source software. I think if there was a serious threat, you would
> see a large number of companies and universities stepping forward to
> threaten MS with their patents.  IBM, for example, has a huge portfolio
> of patents that it has used as a bludgeon in the past.  It has also put
> a lot of time and money into Linux/Open Source...they aren't going to
> let that investment die because of a single acquisition. There's also a
> number of wealthy individuals looking for a test case for software
> patents that could.