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www/philosophy guardian-article.html
|
From: |
Yavor Doganov |
|
Subject: |
www/philosophy guardian-article.html |
|
Date: |
Sun, 22 Apr 2007 19:42:55 +0000 |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Yavor Doganov <yavor> 07/04/22 19:42:55
Modified files:
philosophy : guardian-article.html
Log message:
Templated.
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/guardian-article.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.12&r2=1.13
Patches:
Index: guardian-article.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/guardian-article.html,v
retrieving revision 1.12
retrieving revision 1.13
diff -u -b -r1.12 -r1.13
--- guardian-article.html 26 Apr 2005 18:32:30 -0000 1.12
+++ guardian-article.html 22 Apr 2007 19:42:37 -0000 1.13
@@ -1,67 +1,50 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
-<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
- "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd";>
-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"; xml:lang="en">
-
-<head>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
<title>That's fighting talk - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation
(FSF)</title>
-<meta http-equiv="content-type" content='text/html; charset=utf-8' />
-<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/gnu.css" />
-<link rev="made" href="mailto:address@hidden"; />
-</head>
-
-<!-- This document is in XML, and xhtml 1.0 -->
-<!-- Please make sure to properly nest your tags -->
-<!-- and ensure that your final document validates -->
-<!-- consistent with W3C xhtml 1.0 and CSS standards -->
-<!-- See validator.w3.org -->
-
-<body>
-
-<p><a href="#translations">Translations</a> of this page</p>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>That's fighting talk</h2>
-<h3> That's fighting talk</h3>
-
-<p>by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/";><strong>Richard Stallman</strong></a>
and <strong>Nick Hill</strong></p>
-
-<p>
-<a href="/graphics/philosophicalgnu.html"><img
src="/graphics/philosophical-gnu-sm.jpg"
- alt=" [image of a Philosophical Gnu] "
- width="160" height="200" /></a>
-</p>
+<p>by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/";><strong>Richard
+Stallman</strong></a> and <strong>Nick Hill</strong></p>
<p>
The computer industry is threatened by a Wild West-style land grab. The
biggest, richest companies are being assisted by governments to take
unassailable exclusive control of the ideas that programmers combine to
make a program.</p>
+
<p>
-Our society is becoming more dependent on information technology. At the
-same time, centralised control over and ownership of the information
-technology field is increasing, and mega-corporations with law-given
-dominion over our computers could take away our freedoms and democracy.
-With an effective monopoly on modern software, the largest grabbers of the
-"land" will have control over what we can ask our computers to do, and
-control over production and distribution of information on the net, through
-monopolies that the EU plans to give them.</p>
-<p>
-The monopolies are patents, each one restricting use of one or several of
-these software ideas. We call them "software patents" because they restrict
-what we programmers can make software do. How do these monopolies work?
-If you wish to use your computer as a word processor, it must follow
-instructions that tell it how to act like a word processor. This is
-analogous to instructions found on a musical score, which tell an orchestra
-how to play a symphony. The instructions are not simple. They are made up
-of thousands of smaller instructions, much like sequences of notes and
-chords. A symphonic score embodies hundreds of musical ideas, and a
-computer program uses hundreds or thousands of software ideas. Since each
-idea is abstract, there are often different ways to describe it: thus, some
-ideas can be patented in multiple ways.</p>
+Our society is becoming more dependent on information technology. At
+the same time, centralised control over and ownership of the
+information technology field is increasing, and mega-corporations with
+law-given dominion over our computers could take away our freedoms and
+democracy. With an effective monopoly on modern software, the largest
+grabbers of the “land” will have control over what we can
+ask our computers to do, and control over production and distribution
+of information on the net, through monopolies that the EU plans to
+give them.</p>
+
+<p>
+The monopolies are patents, each one restricting use of one or several
+of these software ideas. We call them “software patents”
+because they restrict what we programmers can make software do. How do
+these monopolies work? If you wish to use your computer as a word
+processor, it must follow instructions that tell it how to act like a
+word processor. This is analogous to instructions found on a musical
+score, which tell an orchestra how to play a symphony. The
+instructions are not simple. They are made up of thousands of smaller
+instructions, much like sequences of notes and chords. A symphonic
+score embodies hundreds of musical ideas, and a computer program uses
+hundreds or thousands of software ideas. Since each idea is abstract,
+there are often different ways to describe it: thus, some ideas can be
+patented in multiple ways.</p>
+
<p>
The US, which has had software patents since the 1980s, shows what this can
do to development of everyday software. For example, in the US there are 39
monopoly claims over a standard way of showing video using software
-techniques (the MPEG 2 format).</p>
+techniques (the <abbr title="Moving Picture Experts Group">MPEG</abbr>
+2 format).</p>
+
<p>
Since a single piece of software can embody thousands of ideas together,
and those ideas are arbitrary in scope and abstract in nature, writing
@@ -71,104 +54,79 @@
cost of defending against an invalid patent claim is $1.5 million. The
courts favour the wealthy, so even when a small business gets a few
patents, it will find them useless.</p>
+
<p>
Software patents are being claimed at a tremendous rate in the US. If they
become legal in Europe, most of those US patents will be extended to
Europe also. This is likely to have a devastating effect on European
-software development--leading to job losses, a poorer economy, more
+software development—leading to job losses, a poorer economy, more
expensive computer use, and less choice and less freedom for the end user.
The advocates of software patents in Europe, and the probable beneficiaries
of them, are the patent bureaucracy (more influence on more areas of life),
patent lawyers (more business from both plaintiffs and defendants), and
computer mega-corporations such as IBM and Microsoft.</p>
+
<p>
-Foremost among the software mega-corporations is Microsoft. Even as part of
-the European commission investigates Microsoft for monopolistic practices,
-another part is planning to hand it an unending series of overlapping 20-year
-monopolies. Bill Gates wrote in his Challenges and Strategy memo of May 16
-1991 that "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most
-of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry
-would be at a complete standstill today. The solution ... is patenting as
-much as we can ... A future start-up with no patents of its own will be
-forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose." Today Microsoft
-hopes to parlay software patents into a permanent monopoly on many areas of
-software.</p>
-<p>
-The European commission says its proposed directive on computer-implemented
-inventions will disallow software patents. But the text was actually
-written by the Business Software Alliance, which represents the largest
-software companies. (The commission didn't admit this--we detected it.) It
-contains vague words that we suspect are designed to open the door for
-software patents.</p>
-<p>
-The text says that computer-related patents must make a "technical
-contribution"; the commission says that means "no software patents".
-But "technical" can be interpreted in many ways. The European patent office
-is already registering software patents of dubious legal validity, defying
-the treaty that governs it and the governments that established it.
-Operating under those words, it will stretch them to allow all kinds of
-software patents.</p>
-<p>
-Arlene McCarthy, MEP for north-west England, has been a key figure
-promoting and acting as rapporteur for this proposed directive. The
-cosmetic changes she has so far proposed do nothing to solve the problem.
-However, the cultural affairs commission's amendment that defines
-"technical" will assure British and European software developers that they
-will not risk a lawsuit simply by writing and distributing a software
package.</p>
+Foremost among the software mega-corporations is Microsoft. Even as
+part of the European commission investigates Microsoft for
+monopolistic practices, another part is planning to hand it an
+unending series of overlapping 20-year monopolies. Bill Gates wrote in
+his Challenges and Strategy memo of May 16 1991 that “If people
+had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas
+were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a
+complete standstill today. The solution … is patenting as much
+as we can … A future start-up with no patents of its own will
+be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose.”
+Today Microsoft hopes to parlay software patents into a permanent
+monopoly on many areas of software.</p>
+
+<p>
+The European commission says its proposed directive on
+computer-implemented inventions will disallow software patents. But
+the text was actually written by the Business Software Alliance, which
+represents the largest software companies. (The commission didn't
+admit this—we detected it.) It contains vague words that we
+suspect are designed to open the door for software patents.</p>
+
+<p>
+The text says that computer-related patents must make a
+“technical contribution”; the commission says that means
+“no software patents”. But “technical” can be
+interpreted in many ways. The European patent office is already
+registering software patents of dubious legal validity, defying the
+treaty that governs it and the governments that established it.
+Operating under those words, it will stretch them to allow all kinds
+of software patents.</p>
+
+<p>
+Arlene McCarthy, <abbr title="Member of the European Parliament">MEP</abbr>
+for north-west England, has been a key figure promoting and acting as
+rapporteur for this proposed directive. The cosmetic changes she has
+so far proposed do nothing to solve the problem. However, the
+cultural affairs commission's amendment that defines
+“technical” will assure British and European software
+developers that they will not risk a lawsuit simply by writing and
+distributing a software package.</p>
<p>
The vague words drafted by the mega-corporations must be replaced with
clear, decisive wording. Wording that will ensure that our information
future will not be hijacked by the interests of a few rich organisations.</p>
+
<p>
-Please go to <a
href="http://www.softwarepatents.co.uk";>http://www.softwarepatents.co.uk</a>
- to learn more, and then talk
-with the MEPs from your region.</p>
-
-<hr />
-<h4><a href="/philosophy/philosophy.html">Other Texts to Read</a></h4>
-<hr />
-
-<!-- All pages on the GNU web server should have the section about -->
-<!-- verbatim copying. Please do NOT remove this without talking -->
-<!-- with the webmasters first. -->
-<!-- Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the document -->
-<!-- and that it is like this "2001, 2002" not this "2001-2002." -->
-
-<div class="translations">
-<p><a id="translations"></a>
-<b>Translations of this page</b>:<br />
-
-<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical, and in the original -->
-<!-- language if possible, otherwise default to English -->
-<!-- If you do not have it English, please comment what the -->
-<!-- English is. If you add a new language here, please -->
-<!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
-<!-- - in /home/www/bin/nightly-vars either TAGSLANG or WEBLANG -->
-<!-- - in /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
-<!-- one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
-<!-- - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias -->
-<!-- to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
-<!-- Please also check you have the 2 letter language code right versus -->
-<!-- http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm -->
+Please go
+to <a
href="http://www.softwarepatents.co.uk";>http://www.softwarepatents.co.uk</a>
+to learn more, and then talk with the <abbr>MEP</abbr>s from your region.</p>
-[
- <a href="/philosophy/guardian-article.html">English</a>
-| <a href="/philosophy/guardian-article.fr.html">Français</a> <!--
French -->
-| <a href="/philosophy/guardian-article.pl.html">Polski</a> <!-- Polish -->
-]
-</p>
</div>
-<div class="copyright">
-<p>
-Return to the <a href="/home.html">GNU Project home page</a>.
-</p>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
<p>
Please send FSF & GNU inquiries to
<a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
-There are also <a href="/home.html#ContactInfo">other ways to contact</a>
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
the FSF.
<br />
Please send broken links and other corrections (or suggestions) to
@@ -177,13 +135,13 @@
<p>
Please see the
-<a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+<a href="/server/standards/README.translations">Translations
README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting
translations of this article.
</p>
<p>
-Copyright 2003 Richard M Stallman and Nicholas R Hill.
+Copyright © 2003 Richard M Stallman and Nicholas R Hill
<br />
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is
@@ -193,10 +151,36 @@
<p>
Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2005/04/26 18:32:30 $ $Author: alex_muntada $
+$Date: 2007/04/22 19:42:37 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>
+<div id="translations">
+<h4>Translations of this page</h4>
+
+<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical. -->
+<!-- Comment what the language is for each type, i.e. de is Deutsch.-->
+<!-- If you add a new language here, please -->
+<!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
+<!-- - /home/www/bin/nightly-vars either TAGSLANG or WEBLANG -->
+<!-- - /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
+<!-- - one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
+<!-- - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias -->
+<!-- to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
+<!-- Please also check you have the 2 letter language code right versus -->
+<!-- <URL:http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm> -->
+<!-- Please use W3C normative character entities -->
+
+<ul class="translations-list">
+<!-- English -->
+<li><a href="/philosophy/guardian-article.html">English</a> [en]</li>
+<!-- French -->
+<li><a
href="/philosophy/guardian-article.fr.html">Français</a> [fr]</li>
+<!-- Polish -->
+<li><a href="/philosophy/guardian-article.pl.html">Polski</a> [pl]</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
</body>
</html>
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