# LANGUAGE translation of https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/software-literary-patents.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: software-literary-patents.html\n" "POT-Creation-Date: 2021-08-28 13:56+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 "" "Software Patents and Literary Patents - GNU Project - Free Software " "Foundation" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h2> msgid "Software Patents and Literary Patents" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><address> msgid "by <a href=\"https://stallman.org/\">Richard Stallman</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "When politicians consider the question of software patents, they are usually " "voting blind; not being programmers, they don't understand what software " "patents really 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 in France, 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. (The misleading term " "<a href=\"/philosophy/not-ipr.html\"> “intellectual " "property”</a> promotes this confusion—one of the reasons it " "should never be used.)" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Those who imagine effects like those of copyright law cannot grasp the " "disastrous effects of software patents. We can use Victor Hugo as an " "example to illustrate the difference." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "A novel and a modern complex program have certain points in common: each one " "is large, and implements many ideas in combination. So let's follow the " "analogy, and suppose that patent law had been applied to novels in the " "1800s; suppose that states such as France had permitted the patenting of " "literary ideas. How would this have affected Victor Hugo's writing? How " "would the effects of literary patents compare with the effects of literary " "copyright?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Consider Victor Hugo's novel <cite> Les Misérables</cite>. Since he " "wrote it, the copyright belonged only to him. 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, not the ideas embodied in them, and it only restricts copying. " "Hugo had not copied <cite>Les Misérables</cite>, so he was not in " "danger from copyright." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Patents work differently. Patents cover ideas; each patent is a monopoly on " "practicing some idea, which is described in the patent itself. Here's one " "example of a hypothetical literary patent:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the " "concept of a character who has been in jail for a long time and becomes " "bitter towards society and humankind." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "Claim 2: a communication process according to claim 1, wherein said " "character subsequently finds moral redemption through the kindness of " "another." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "Claim 3: a communication process according to claims 1 and 2, wherein said " "character changes his name during the story." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If such a patent had existed in 1862 when <cite>Les Misérables</cite> " "was published, the novel would have conflicted with 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." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "Now consider this hypothetical literary patent:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the " "concept of a character who has been in jail for a long time and subsequently " "changes his name." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<cite>Les Misérables</cite> would have been prohibited by that patent " "too, because this description too fits the life story of Jean Valjean. And " "here's another hypothetical patent:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the " "concept of a character who finds moral redemption and then changes his name." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "Jean Valjean would have been forbidden by this patent too." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "All three patents would cover, and prohibit, the life story of this one " "character. They overlap, but they do not precisely duplicate each other, so " "they could all be valid simultaneously; all three patent holders could have " "sued Victor Hugo. Any one of them could have prohibited publication of " "<cite>Les Misérables</cite>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "This patent also could have been violated:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "Claim 1: a communication process that presents a character whose given name " "matches the last syllable of his family name." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "through the name “Jean Valjean,” but at least this patent would " "have been easy to avoid." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "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 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." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Other aspects of <cite>Les Misérables</cite> could also have run " "afoul of patents. For instance, there could have been a patent on a " "fictionalized portrayal of the Battle of Waterloo, or a patent on using " "Parisian slang in fiction. Two more lawsuits. In fact, there is no limit " "to the number of different patents that might have been applicable for suing " "the author of a work such as <cite>Les Misérables</cite>. All the " "patent holders would say they deserved a reward for the literary progress " "that their patented ideas represent, but these obstacles would not promote " "progress in literature, they would only obstruct it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "However, a very broad patent could have made all these issues irrelevant. " "Imagine a patent with broad claims like these:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "A communication process structured with narration that continues through " "many pages." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "A narration structure sometimes resembling a fugue or improvisation." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "Intrigue articulated around the confrontation of specific characters, each " "in turn setting traps for the others." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "Narration that presents many layers of society." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "Narration that shows the wheels of hidden conspiracy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "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 booming " "nowadays." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Given these broad patents, Victor Hugo would not have reached the point of " "asking what patents might get him sued for using the character of Jean " "Valjean, because he could not even have considered writing a novel of this " "kind." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This analogy can help nonprogrammers see what software patents do. Software " "patents cover features, such as defining abbreviations in a word processor, " "or natural order recalculation in a spreadsheet. Patents cover algorithms " "that programs need to use. Patents cover aspects of file formats, such as " "Microsoft's OOXML format. MPEG 2 video format is covered by 39 different US " "patents." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Just as one novel could run afoul of many different literary patents at " "once, one program can be prohibited by many different patents at once. It " "is so much work to identify all the patents that appear to apply to a large " "program that only one such study has been done. A 2004 study of Linux, the " "kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system, found 283 different US software " "patents that seemed to cover it. That is to say, each of these 283 " "different patents forbids some computational process found somewhere in the " "thousands of pages of source code of Linux. At the time, Linux was around " "one percent of the whole GNU/Linux system. How many patents might there be " "that a distributor of the whole system could be sued under?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The way to prevent software patents from bollixing software development is " "simple: don't authorize them. This ought to be easy, since most patent laws " "have provisions against software patents. They typically say that " "“software per se” cannot be patented. But patent offices around " "the world are trying to twist the words and issuing patents on the ideas " "implemented in programs. Unless this is blocked, the result will be to put " "all software developers in danger." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "The first version of this article was published in <cite>The " "Guardian</cite>, of London, on June 23, 2005. It focused on the proposed " "European software patent directive." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "This essay is published in <a " "href=\"https://shop.fsf.org/product/free-software-free-society/\"><cite>Free " "Software, Free Society: The Selected Essays of Richard " "M. Stallman</cite></a>." 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 © 2005, 2009, 2021 Richard Stallman" 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 ""