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www/philosophy software-literary-patents.html
|
From: |
Yavor Doganov |
|
Subject: |
www/philosophy software-literary-patents.html |
|
Date: |
Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:13:19 +0000 |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Yavor Doganov <yavor> 07/06/26 21:13:19
Modified files:
philosophy : software-literary-patents.html
Log message:
* Replaced the deprecated links to swpat.ffii.org with the new ones.
* Added the original year of copyright.
* Fixed translations list.
* dashes, quotes, etc.
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/software-literary-patents.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.9&r2=1.10
Patches:
Index: software-literary-patents.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/software-literary-patents.html,v
retrieving revision 1.9
retrieving revision 1.10
diff -u -b -r1.9 -r1.10
--- software-literary-patents.html 19 Jun 2007 00:02:58 -0000 1.9
+++ software-literary-patents.html 26 Jun 2007 21:13:14 -0000 1.10
@@ -12,23 +12,24 @@
<!-- Change include statements to be consistent with the relevant -->
<!-- language, where necessary. -->
-<h3>By <a href="http://stallman.org/";>Richard Stallman</a></h3>
+<p>by <strong><a href="http://stallman.org/";>Richard Stallman</a></strong></p>
<p>
On July 6, 2005, the European Parliament will vote on the vital
-question of whether to allow patents covering software--a policy that
-would restrict every computer user, and tie software developers up in
-knots.
+question of whether to allow patents covering software—a policy
+that would restrict every computer user, and tie software developers
+up in knots.
</p>
<p>
Many politicians may be voting blind; not being programmers, they
don't understand what software patents do. They often think patents
-are similar to copyright law (except for some details)--which is not
-the case. For instance, when I publicly asked Patrick Devedjian, then
-Minister for Industry, how France would vote on the issue of software
-patents, Devedjian responded with an impassioned defense of copyright
-law, praising Victor Hugo for his role in the adoption of copyright.
+are similar to copyright law (except for some details)—which is
+not the case. For instance, when I publicly asked Patrick Devedjian,
+then Minister for Industry, how France would vote on the issue of
+software patents, Devedjian responded with an impassioned defense of
+copyright law, praising Victor Hugo for his role in the adoption of
+copyright.
</p>
<p>
@@ -49,11 +50,11 @@
<p>
Consider the novel, Les Misérables, which Hugo wrote. Since he wrote
-it, the copyright belonged only to him--nobody else. He did not have
-to fear that some stranger could sue him for copyright infringement
-and win. That was impossible, because copyright covers only the
-details of a work of authorship, and it only restricts copying. Hugo
-had not copied Les Misérables, so he was not in danger.
+it, the copyright belonged only to him—nobody else. He did not
+have to fear that some stranger could sue him for copyright
+infringement and win. That was impossible, because copyright covers
+only the details of a work of authorship, and it only restricts
+copying. Hugo had not copied Les Misérables, so he was not in danger.
</p>
<p>
@@ -80,7 +81,7 @@
published, the novel would have infringed all three claims, since all
these things happened to Jean Valjean in the novel. Victor Hugo could
have been sued, and if sued, he would have lost. The novel could have
-been prohibited--in effect, censored--by the patent holder.
+been prohibited—in effect, censored—by the patent holder.
</p>
<p>
@@ -127,14 +128,14 @@
</ul>
<p>
-through the name "Jean Valjean", but at least this patent would have
-been easy to avoid.
+through the name “Jean Valjean”, but at least this patent
+would have been easy to avoid.
</p>
<p>
You might think that these ideas are so simple that no patent office
would have issued them. We programmers are often amazed by the
-simplicity of the ideas that real software patents cover--for
+simplicity of the ideas that real software patents cover—for
instance, the European Patent Office has issued a patent on the
progress bar, and a patent on accepting payment via credit cards.
These patents would be laughable if they were not so dangerous.
@@ -170,12 +171,12 @@
<p> Who would the patent holders have been? They could have been
other novelists, perhaps Dumas or Balzac, who had written such
-novels--but not necessarily. It isn't required to write a program to
-patent a software idea, so if our hypothetical literary patents follow
-the real patent system, these patent holders would not have had to
-write novels, or stories, or anything--except patent applications.
-Patent parasite companies, businesses that produce nothing except
-threats and lawsuits, are growing larger today. </p>
+novels—but not necessarily. It isn't required to write a
+program to patent a software idea, so if our hypothetical literary
+patents follow the real patent system, these patent holders would not
+have had to write novels, or stories, or anything—except patent
+applications. Patent parasite companies, businesses that produce
+nothing except threats and lawsuits, are growing larger today.</p>
<p> Given these broad patents, Victor Hugo would not have reached
the point of asking what patents might get him sued for using the
@@ -199,29 +200,31 @@
the thousands of pages of source code of Linux.</p>
<p>The text of the directive approved by the Council of Ministers
-clearly authorizes patents covering software techniques. (See <a
-href="http://swpat.ffii.org/lettres/cons0406/text/index.html";>http://swpat.ffii.org/lettres/cons0406/text/index.html</a>.)
+clearly authorizes patents covering software techniques.
+(See <a
href="http://eupat.ffii.org/xatra/cons0406/text/index.en.html";>http://eupat.ffii.org/xatra/cons0406/text/index.en.html</a>.)
Its backers claim that the requirement for patents to have a
-"technical character" will exclude software patents, but it will not.
-It is easy to describe a computer program in a "technical" way: The
-Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office said (Case T 0258/03;
-<a
-href="http://legal.european-patent-office.org/dg3/pdf/t030258ex1.pdf";>http://legal.european-patent-office.org/dg3/pdf/t030258ex1.pdf</a>):</p>
+“technical character” will exclude software patents, but
+it will not. It is easy to describe a computer program in a
+“technical” way: The Boards of Appeal of the European
+Patent Office said (Case T 0258/03;
+<a
href="http://legal.european-patent-office.org/dg3/pdf/t030258ex1.pdf";>http://legal.european-patent-office.org/dg3/pdf/t030258ex1.pdf</a>):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
The Board is aware that its comparatively broad interpretation of
- the term "invention" in Article 52(1) EPC will include activities
- which are so familiar that their technical character tends to be
- overlooked, such as the act of writing using pen and paper.
+ the term “invention” in Article 52(1) EPC will include
+ activities which are so familiar that their technical character
+ tends to be overlooked, such as the act of writing using pen and
+ paper.
</p>
</blockquote>
-<p> Any usable software can be "loaded and executed in a computer,
-programmed computer network or other programmable apparatus" in order
-to do its job, which is the criterion in article 5(2) of the directive
-for patents to prohibit even the publication of programs (<a
-href="http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/cons0401/tab/index.en.html";>http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/cons0401/tab/index.en.html</a>).
+<p> Any usable software can be “loaded and executed in a
+computer, programmed computer network or other programmable
+apparatus” in order to do its job, which is the criterion in
+article 5(2) of the directive for patents to prohibit even the
+publication of programs
+(<a
href="http://eupat.ffii.org/papri/europarl0309/cons0401/tab/index.en.html";>http://eupat.ffii.org/papri/europarl0309/cons0401/tab/index.en.html</a>).
</p>
<p>
@@ -250,7 +253,7 @@
There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
the FSF.
<br />
-Please send broken links and other corrections (or suggestions) to
+Please send broken links and other corrections or suggestions to
<a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
</p>
@@ -262,7 +265,7 @@
</p>
<p>
-Copyright © 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
+Copyright © 2005, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
</p>
<address>51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110, USA</address>
<p>Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are
@@ -273,7 +276,7 @@
<p>
Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2007/06/19 00:02:58 $
+$Date: 2007/06/26 21:13:14 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>
@@ -294,10 +297,15 @@
<!-- <URL:http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm> -->
<!-- Please use W3C normative character entities -->
- <a href="/philosophy/software-literary-patents.html">English</a>
-| <a href="/philosophy/software-literary-patents.fr.html">Français</a>
<!-- French -->
-| <a href="/philosophy/software-literary-patents.nl.html">Nederlands</a>
<!-- Dutch -->
-| <a href="/philosophy/software-literary-patents.pl.html">Polski</a> <!--
Polish -->
+<ul class="translations-list">
+<!-- English -->
+<li><a
href="/philosophy/software-literary-patents.html">English</a> [en]</li>
+<!-- French -->
+<li><a
href="/philosophy/software-literary-patents.fr.html">Français</a> [fr]</li>
+<!-- Dutch -->
+<li><a
href="/philosophy/software-literary-patents.nl.html">Nederlands</a> [nl]</li>
+<!-- Polish -->
+<li><a
href="/philosophy/software-literary-patents.pl.html">Polski</a> [pl]</li>
</div>
</div>
</body>
- www/philosophy software-literary-patents.html,
Yavor Doganov <=