# LANGUAGE translation of https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/savingeurope.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: savingeurope.html\n" "POT-Creation-Date: 2021-09-22 09:26+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=CHARSET\n" "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n" #. type: Content of: msgid "Saving Europe from Software Patents - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h2> msgid "Saving Europe from Software Patents" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Imagine that each time you made a software design decision, and especially " "whenever you used an algorithm that you read in a journal or implemented a " "feature that users ask for, you took a risk of being sued." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "That's how it is today in the US, because of software patents. Soon it may " "be the same in most of Europe (<a href=\"#ft1\">1</a>). The countries that " "operate the European Patent Office, spurred by large companies and " "encouraged by patent lawyers, are moving to allow patents covering " "mathematical computations." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "To block this move, European citizens must take action, and do it " "soon—by talking with their national governments to raise opposition to " "the change. Action in Germany, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, and/or " "Denmark is especially important, to join a campaign already under way in " "France." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Patents have played havoc with free software already. During the 1980s, the " "patent holders for public key encryption entirely suppressed free software " "for that job. They wanted to suppress PGP too, but facing public criticism, " "they accepted a compromise: adding restrictions to PGP so that it was no " "longer free software. (We began developing the GNU Privacy Guard after the " "broadest patent expired.)" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Compuserve developed GIF format for images, then was stunned when Unisys " "threatened to sue them and everyone else who developed or ran software to " "produce GIFs. Unisys had obtained a patent on the LZW data compression " "algorithm, which is one part of generating GIF format, and refuses to permit " "free software to use LZW (<a href=\"#ft2\">2</a>). As a result, any free " "software in the US that supports making true compressed GIFs is at risk of a " "lawsuit." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "In the US and some other countries, free software for MP3(<a " "href=\"#ft3\">3</a>) is impossible; in 1998, US developers who had developed " "free MP3-generation programs were threatened with patent lawsuits, and " "forced to withdraw them. Some are now distributed in European " "countries—but if the European Patent Office makes this planned change, " "they may become unavailable there too." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Later in 1998, Microsoft menaced the World Wide Web, by obtaining a patent " "affecting style sheets—after encouraging the WWW Consortium to " "incorporate the feature in the standard. It's not the first time that a " "standards group has been lured into a patent's maw. Public reaction " "convinced Microsoft to back down from enforcing this patent; but we can't " "count on mercy every time." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The list could go on and on, if I had time to look through my old mail for " "examples and space to describe them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "On the issue of patents, free software developers can make common cause with " "most proprietary software developers, because in general they too stand to " "lose from patents. So do the many developers of specialized custom " "software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "To be sure, not everyone loses from software patents; if that were so, the " "system would soon be abolished. Large companies often have many patents, " "and can force most other companies, large or small, to cross-license with " "them. They escape most of the trouble patents cause, while enjoying a large " "share of the power patents confer. This is why the chief supporters of " "software patents are multinational corporations. They have a great deal of " "influence with governments." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Occasionally a small company benefits from a patent, if its product is so " "simple that it escapes infringing the large companies' patents and thus " "being forced to cross-license with them. And patent owners who develop no " "products, but only squeeze money out of those who do, can laugh all the way " "to the bank while obstructing progress." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But most software developers, as well as users, lose from software patents, " "which do more to obstruct software progress than to encourage it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "People used to call free software an absurd idea, saying we lacked the " "ability to develop a large amount of software. We have refuted them with " "empirical fact, by developing a broad range of powerful software that " "respects users' freedom. Giving the public the full spectrum of " "general-purpose software is within our reach—unless giving software to " "the public is prohibited." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Software patents threaten to do that. The time to take action is now. " "Please visit <a href=\"https://ffii.org/\">ffii.org</a> for more " "information, plus detailed suggestions for action. And please take time to " "help." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "Footnotes" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ol><li> msgid "" "The European Patent Office, used by many European countries, has issued " "quite a number of patents that affect software, which were presented as " "something other than software patents. The change now being considered " "would open the door to unlimited patenting of algorithms and software " "features, which would greatly increase the number of software patents " "issued." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ol><li> msgid "" "Unisys issued a cleverly worded statement which is often taken to permit " "free software for making GIFs, but which I believe does not do so. I wrote " "to their legal department to ask for clarification and/or a change in the " "policy, but received no reply." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ol><li> msgid "As of 2017 the patents on playing MP3 files have reportedly expired." 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. #. Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard #. to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> # #. <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> # #. <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of #. our web pages, see <a #. href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations #. README</a>. #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "Please see the <a " "href=\"/server/standards/README.translations.html\">Translations README</a> " "for information on coordinating and contributing translations of this " "article." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "Copyright © 1996-1999, 2017, 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This page is licensed under a <a rel=\"license\" " "href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons " "Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>." msgstr "" #. 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 ""