# LANGUAGE translation of https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/limit-patent-effect.html # Copyright (C) YEAR Free Software Foundation, Inc. # This file is distributed under the same license as the original article. # FIRST AUTHOR , YEAR. # #, fuzzy msgid "" msgstr "" "Project-Id-Version: limit-patent-effect.html\n" "POT-Creation-Date: 2024-07-22 06:58+0000\n" "PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n" "Last-Translator: FULL NAME \n" "Language-Team: LANGUAGE \n" "Language: \n" "MIME-Version: 1.0\n" "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n" "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n" #. type: Content of: msgid "" "Giving the Software Field Protection from Patents - GNU Project - Free " "Software Foundation" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h2> msgid "Giving the Software Field Protection from Patents" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><address> msgid "by <a href=\"https://www.stallman.org/\">Richard Stallman</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Patents threaten every software developer, and the patent wars we have long " "feared have broken out. Software developers and software users—which, " "in our society, is most people—need software to be free of patents." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The patents that threaten us are often called “software " "patents,” but that term is misleading. Such patents are not about any " "specific program. Rather, each patent describes some practical idea, and " "says that anyone carrying out the idea can be sued. So it is clearer to " "call them “computational idea patents.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The US patent system doesn't label patents to say this one's a " "“software patent” and that one isn't. Software developers are " "the ones who make a distinction between the patents that threaten " "us—those that cover ideas that can be implemented in " "software—and the rest. For example, if the patented idea is the shape " "of a physical structure or a chemical reaction, no program can implement " "that idea; that patent doesn't threaten the software field. But if the idea " "that's patented is a computation, that patent's barrel points at software " "developers and users." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This is not to say that computational idea patents prohibit only software. " "These ideas can also be implemented in hardware—and many of them have " "been. Each patent typically covers both hardware <em>and</em> software " "implementations of the idea." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "The Special Problem of Software" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Still, software is where computational idea patents cause a special " "problem. In software, it's easy to implement thousands of ideas together in " "one program. If 10 percent are patented, that means hundreds of patents " "threaten it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "When Dan Ravicher of the Public Patent Foundation studied one large program " "(Linux, which is the kernel of the <a href=\"/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html\"> " "GNU/Linux</a> operating system) in 2004, he found 283 US patents that " "appeared to cover computing ideas implemented in the source code of that " "program. That same year, a magazine estimated that Linux was .25 percent of " "the whole GNU/Linux system. Multiplying 300 by 400 we get the " "order-of-magnitude estimate that the system as a whole was <em>threatened by " "around 100,000 patents</em>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If half of those patents were eliminated as “bad " "quality”—mistakes of the patent system, that is—it would " "not really change things. Whether 100,000 patents or 50,000, it's the same " "disaster. This is why it's a mistake to limit our criticism of software " "patents to just “patent trolls” or “bad quality” " "patents. The worst patent aggressor today is Apple, which isn't a " "“troll” by the usual definition; I don't know whether Apple's " "patents are “good quality,” but the better the patent's " "“quality” the more dangerous its threat." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "We need to fix the whole problem, not just part of it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The usual suggestions for correcting this problem legislatively involve " "changing the criteria for granting patents—for instance, to ban " "issuance of patents on computational practices and systems to perform them. " "This approach has two drawbacks." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "First, patent lawyers are clever at reformulating patents to fit whatever " "rules may apply; they transform any attempt at limiting the substance of " "patents into a requirement of mere form. For instance, many US " "computational idea patents describe a system including an arithmetic unit, " "an instruction sequencer, a memory, plus controls to carry out a particular " "computation. This is a peculiar way of describing a computer running a " "program that does a certain computation; it was designed to make the patent " "application satisfy criteria that the US patent system was believed for a " "time to require." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Second, the US already has many thousands of computational idea patents, and " "changing the criteria to prevent issuing more would not get rid of the " "existing ones. We would have to wait almost 20 years for the problem to be " "entirely corrected through the expiration of these patents. We could " "envision legislating the abolition of these existing patents, but that is " "probably unconstitutional. (The Supreme Court has perversely insisted that " "Congress can extend private privileges at the expense of the public's rights " "but that it can't go in the other direction.)" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "A Different Approach: Limit Effect, Not Patentability" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "My suggestion is to change the <em>effect</em> of patents. We should " "legislate that developing, distributing, or running a program on generally " "used computing hardware does not constitute patent infringement. This " "approach has several advantages:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "It does not require classifying patents or patent applications as " "“software” or “not software.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "It provides developers and users with protection from both existing and " "potential future computational idea patents." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "Patent lawyers cannot defeat the intended effect by writing applications " "differently." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This approach doesn't entirely invalidate existing computational idea " "patents, because they would continue to apply to implementations using " "special-purpose hardware. This is an advantage because it eliminates an " "argument against the legal validity of the plan. The US passed a law some " "years ago shielding surgeons from patent lawsuits, so that even if surgical " "procedures are patented, surgeons are safe. That provides a precedent for " "this solution." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Software developers and software users need protection from patents. This " "is the only legislative solution that would provide full protection for " "all. We could then go back to competing or cooperating… without the " "fear that some stranger will wipe away our work." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "<em>See also: <a href=\"/philosophy/patent-reform-is-not-enough.html\"> " "Patent Reform Is Not Enough</a></em>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "A version of this article was first published at <a " "href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20201111202233/http://www.wired.com/2012/11/richard-stallman-software-patents/\"> " "<cite>Wired</cite></a> in November 2012." msgstr "" #. TRANSLATORS: Use space (SPC) as msgstr if you don't have notes. #. type: Content of: <div> msgid "*GNUN-SLOT: TRANSLATOR'S NOTES*" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a " "href=\"mailto:gnu@gnu.org\"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a " "href=\"/contact/\">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and " "other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a " "href=\"mailto:webmasters@gnu.org\"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>." msgstr "" #. TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, #. replace it with the translation of these two: # #. We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality #. translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. #. 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TRANSLATORS: Use space (SPC) as msgstr if you don't want credits. #. type: Content of: <div><div> msgid "*GNUN-SLOT: TRANSLATOR'S CREDITS*" msgstr "" #. timestamp start #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "Updated:" msgstr ""