# LANGUAGE translation of https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/software-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-patents.html\n" "POT-Creation-Date: 2024-12-28 14:25+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 "Software Patents - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h2> msgid "Software Patents — Obstacles to Software Development" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><address> msgid "by Richard Stallman" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "This is the transcription of a talk presented by Richard M. Stallman on " "March 25, 2002, at the University of Cambridge <a " "href=\"https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/\">Computer Laboratory</a>, organized by the " "<a " "href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20221028103335/https://www.fipr.org/\"> " "Foundation for Information Policy Research</a>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "Transcript (<a " "href=\"https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/stallman-patents.html\">original " "version</a>) and <a " "href=\"//audio-video.gnu.org/audio/rms-speech-cambridgeuni-england2002.ogg\">audio " "recording</a> by Nicholas Hill. HTML editing and links by Markus Kuhn and " "GNU webmasters." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You might have been familiar with my work on <a " "href=\"/philosophy/free-sw.html\">free software</a>. This speech is not " "about that. This speech is about a way of <a " "href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20150329103351/http://www.progfree.org/Patents/against-software-patents.html\"> " "misusing laws</a> to make software development a dangerous activity. This " "is about what happens when patent law gets applied to the field of software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "It's not about patenting software. That's a very bad way, a misleading way " "to describe it, because it's not a matter of patenting individual programs. " "If it were, it would make no difference, it would be basically harmless. " "Instead, it's about patenting ideas. Every patent covers some idea. <a " "href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20150329143651/http://progfree.org/Patents/patents.html\"> " "Software patents</a> are patents that cover software ideas, ideas that you " "would use in developing software. That's what makes them a dangerous " "obstacle to all software development." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><h3> msgid "Table of contents" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#copyright-vs-patent\">Differences between copyrights and " "patents</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#patent-system\">The patent system</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#dealing-with-patents\">How a developer can deal with patents</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#patent-avoiding\">Avoiding the patent</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#patent-licensing\">Licensing the patent</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#patent-overturning\">Overturning the patent in court</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#software-specificity\">Specificities of the software field</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#software-patent-policies\">Addressing the problem of software " "patents in public policies</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#footnotes\">Footnotes</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "Differences between copyrights and patents" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You may have heard people use a misleading term “<a " "href=\"https://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/\">intellectual property</a>.” " "This term, as you can see, is biased, because it makes an assumption: " "whatever it is you are talking about, the way to treat it is as a kind of " "property, which is one among many alternatives. This term " "“intellectual property” pre-judges the most basic question in " "whatever area you are dealing with. That's not conducive to clear and open " "minded thinking." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But there is an additional problem which has nothing to do with promoting " "any one opinion. It gets in the way of understanding even the facts. The " "term “intellectual property” is a catch-all. It lumps together " "various completely disparate areas of law, such as copyrights and patents, " "which are completely different from copyrights (every detail is different), " "and trademarks, which are even more different, and various other things more " "or less commonly encountered. None of them has anything in common with any " "of the others. Their origins, historically, are completely separate." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The laws were designed independently. They cover different areas of life " "and activities, and the public policy issues they raise are completely " "unrelated. So, if you try to think about them by lumping them together, you " "are guaranteed to come to foolish conclusions. Whatever they might be, " "there is literally no sensible or intelligent opinion you can have about " "“intellectual property.” So, if you want to think clearly, don't " "lump them together. Think about copyrights, and then think about patents. " "Learn about copyright law, and separately, learn about patent law." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "To give you some of the biggest differences between copyrights and patents:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li><p> msgid "" "Copyrights cover the details of expression of a work; copyrights don't cover " "any ideas. It's a {legal fault} to consider copyrights as covering any " "idea. But patents <em>only</em> cover ideas and the use of ideas." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li><p> msgid "" "Copyrights happen automatically. Patents are issued by a patent office in " "response to an application. It costs a lot of money. And it costs even " "more paying the lawyers to write the application than it costs to actually " "apply. It takes typically some years for the application to get considered, " "even though patent offices typically do an extremely sloppy job of " "considering them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li><p> msgid "" "Copyrights last tremendously long. Nowadays, in some cases they can last as " "long as 150 years, whereas patents last for 20 years, which is long enough " "that you can outlive them, but still quite long by a timescale of a field " "such as software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li><p> msgid "" "Think back 20 years ago; the PC was a new thing. Imagine being constrained " "to develop software using only the ideas that were known in 1982." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li><p> msgid "" "Copyrights cover copying. If you write a novel that turns out to be " "word-for-word the same as <cite>Gone with the Wind</cite>, but you can prove " "you never saw <cite>Gone with the Wind</cite>, and that you wrote it on your " "own, that would be a defense to any accusation of copyright infringement." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li><p> msgid "" "But a patent is an absolute monopoly on using an idea. Even if you could " "prove that you had the idea on your own, it would be entirely irrelevant if " "the idea is patented by somebody else." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "I hope you will basically just forget about copyrights for the rest of this " "talk, because this talk is about patents and you should never lump together " "copyrights and patents. Your understanding of these legal issues would be " "about like what would happen in your understanding of practical chemistry if " "you confused water and ethanol." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "The patent system" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "When you hear people describe the patent system, they usually describe it " "from the point of view of somebody who is hoping to get a patent: what it " "would be like for you to get a patent; what it would be like for you to be " "walking down the street with a patent in your pocket, so that every so often " "you can pull it out and point it out at somebody and say “Give Me Your " "Money!” There is a reason for this bias, which is that most of the " "people who will tell you about this patent system have a stake in it, so " "they want you to like it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "There is another reason: the patent system is a lot like a lottery because " "only a tiny fraction of patents actually bring any benefit to those who hold " "the patents. In fact, <cite><a " "href=\"https://www.economist.com/leaders/2011/08/20/patent-medicine\"> The " "Economist</a></cite> once compared it to a time consuming lottery. If you " "have seen ads for lotteries, they always invite you to think about winning. " "They don't invite you to think about losing, even though losing is far more " "likely. It's the same with ads for the patent system. They always invite " "you to think about being the one who wins." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "To balance this bias, I am going to describe the patent system from the " "point of view of its victims. That is from the point of view of somebody " "who wants to develop software but is forced to contend with a system of " "software patents that might result in getting sued." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, what's the first thing you are going to do after you have had an idea of " "what kind of program you are going to write? The first thing you might want " "to try to do to deal with the patent system is find out what patents may " "cover the program you want to write. This is impossible. The reason is that " "some of the patent applications that are pending are secret. After a " "certain amount of time they may get published, like 18 months. But that's " "plenty of time for you to write a program and even release it, not knowing " "that there is going to be a patent and you are going to get sued." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This is not just academic. In 1984, the Compress program was written (it " "was a program for data compression.) At the time, there was no patent on " "the LZW compression algorithm which it used. Then in 1985, the US issued a " "<a href=\"https://patents.justia.com/patent/4558302\">patent</a> on this " "algorithm, and over the next few years, those who distributed the Compress " "program started getting threats. There was no way that the author of " "Compress could have realized he was likely to get sued. All he did was use " "an idea that he found in a journal, just like programmers have always done. " "He hadn't realized that you could no longer safely use ideas that you found " "in a journal." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But let's forget about that problem… The issued patents are published " "by the patent office, so you can find the whole long list of them and see " "exactly what they say. Of course, you couldn't actually read that whole " "list as there are too many of them. In the US, there are hundreds of " "thousands of software patents, and there is no way you could keep track of " "what they are all about. So you'd have to try to search for relevant ones. " "Some people say that should be easy in these modern days of computers. You " "could search for keywords and so on. Well, that will work to a certain " "extent. You will find some patents in the area. You won't necessarily find " "them all, however." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "For instance, there was a software patent which, I think, may have expired " "by now, on natural order recalculation in spreadsheets. This means " "basically that, when you make certain cells depend on other cells, it always " "recalculates everything after the things it depends on, so that after one " "recalculation everything is up to date. The first spreadsheets did their " "recalculation top-down, so if you made a cell depend on a cell that was " "lower down, and you had a few such steps, you had to recalculate several " "times to get the new values to propagate upwards. You were supposed to have " "things depend on cells above them, you see." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Then somebody realized, “Why don't I just do the recalculation. " "Everything gets recalculated after the things it depends on. Do it in the " "right order, and they will all be up to date.” This algorithm is known " "as topological sorting. The first reference to it I could find was in " "1963. The patent covered several dozen different ways you could implement " "topological sorting, but you wouldn't have found this patent by searching " "for “spreadsheet,” because it didn't mention that word. You " "couldn't have found it to “natural order” or “topological " "sort,” because it didn't have any of those terms in it. In fact, it " "was described as a “method of compiling formulas into object " "code.” I think when I first saw it, I thought it was the wrong patent." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But let's suppose that you got a list of patents. So you want to see now " "what you are not allowed to do. You try studying these patents; well, you " "discover it's very hard to understand them, because they are written in " "tortuous legal language, whose meaning is very hard to understand. In fact, " "things that patent offices say often don't mean what they seem to mean." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "There was an Australian government study of the patent system in the " "1980's. It concluded that, aside from international pressure, there was no " "reason to have a patent system—it did no good for the public—and " "recommended abolishing it, if not for international pressure. One of the " "things they cited was that engineers don't try reading patents to learn " "anything, because it is too hard to understand them. They quoted one " "engineer saying “I can't recognize my own inventions in " "patenteese.” <i class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This is not just theoretical. Around 1990, a programmer named <a " "href=\"https://www.atarimagazines.com/startv2n3/hypercard.html\">Paul " "Heckel</a> sued Apple, claiming that Hypercard infringed a couple of his <a " "href=\"https://patents.justia.com/patent/4486857\">patents</a>. When he " "first saw Hypercard, he didn't think it had anything to do with his " "“inventions.” It didn't look similar. But his lawyer told him " "that you could read the patents as covering part of Hypercard, so he decided " "to then attack Apple." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "When I gave a speech about this at Stanford, he was in the audience and he " "said “That's <a " "href=\"https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/int-prop/heckel-debunking.html\"> " "not true</a>, I just didn't understand the extent of my protection!” " "<i class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>  And I said, “Yes, that's what I " "said!” <i class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, in fact, you are going to spend a lot of time talking with lawyers to " "figure out what these patents prohibit you from doing. And ultimately, they " "are going to say something like this: “If you do something in here, " "you are sure to lose; if you do something in here, there is a substantial " "chance of losing, and if you really want to be safe, stay out of this area. " "And, by the way, there is a sizable element of chance in the outcome of any " "lawsuit.” <i class=\"aside\">[chuckle in the audience]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "How a developer can deal with patents" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now that you have a predictable terrain for doing business, <i " "class=\"aside\">[chuckle in the audience]</i> what are you going to do? " "Well, there are three approaches that you might try, any of which is " "applicable in some cases." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "They are:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ol><li> msgid "avoiding the patent," msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ol><li> msgid "licensing the patent, or" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ol><li> msgid "overturning it in court." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Let me describe these three approaches and what makes them workable or " "unworkable." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dt> msgid "1. Avoiding the patent" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "That means don't use the idea that the patent covers. This can be easy or " "hard, depending on what that idea is. In some cases, a feature is " "patented. Then you avoid the patent by not implementing that feature. Then " "it just matters how important is that feature. In some cases, you can live " "without it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "A while ago, the users of the word processor XyWrite got a downgrade in the " "mail. The downgrade removed a feature which allowed you to predefine " "abbreviations: when you typed an abbreviation followed by a punctuation " "character, it would immediately replace itself by some expansion. So that " "way you could define the abbreviation for some long phrase, type the " "abbreviation, and then the long phrase would be in your document. They " "wrote to me about this because they knew that the <a " "href=\"/software/emacs/\">Emacs</a> editor has a similar feature. In fact, " "it had it since the 70's. This was interesting because it showed me that " "I've had at least one patentable idea in my life. <i " "class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>  I knew it was patentable because somebody " "else patented it afterward! Actually, they had tried these various " "approaches." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "At first they tried negotiating with the patent holder, who turned out not " "to negotiate in good faith. Then they looked at whether they could have a " "chance of overturning the patent. What they decided to do was take out the " "feature. You can live without this feature. If the word processor lacks " "only this feature, maybe people will still use it. But as various features " "start getting hit, eventually you end up with a program that people think is " "not very good, and they are likely to reject it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "That's a rather narrow patent on a very specific feature. But what do you do " "with the <a href=\"https://patents.justia.com/patent/4873662\">British " "Telecom patent</a> on traversing hyperlinks together with dial-up access? " "Traversing hyperlinks is absolutely essential to a major use of computers " "these days. And dial-up access is also essential. How do you do without " "this feature, which, by the way, isn't even one feature, it is really just a " "combination of two, just arbitrarily juxtaposed. It is rather like a patent " "on having a sofa and television in the same room. <i " "class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "Sometimes the idea that's patented will be so broad and basic that it's very " "hard, that it basically rules out an entire field. For instance, the idea " "of Public Key Encryption, which was patented in the US. The patent expired " "in 1997. Until then, it largely blocked the use of Public Key Encryption in " "the US. A number of programs that people started to develop got crushed, " "and were never really available because the patent holders threatened them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "Then, one program got away: the program <a " "href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20170315023711/http://www.pgpi.org/\"> " "PGP</a>, which initially was released as free software. Apparently, the " "patent holders, by the time they got around to attacking, realized they " "might get too much bad publicity. So they imposed restrictions, making it " "for noncommercial use only, which meant it couldn't catch on too much. So " "they greatly limited the use of Public Key Encryption for a decade or more. " "There was no way around that patent. There was nothing else you could do " "like that." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "Sometimes a specific algorithm gets patented. For instance, there is a " "patent on an optimized version of the Fast Fourier Transform. It runs about " "twice as fast. You can avoid that by using the ordinary FFT in your " "program. That part of your program will take twice as long. Maybe that " "doesn't matter. Maybe that's a small enough part of the program's running " "time that, if it is twice as slow, you won't really notice. Or maybe that " "means your program won't run at all, because it will take twice the real " "time to do its job. The effects vary." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "In some cases, you can find a better algorithm. That may or may not do you " "any good. Because we couldn't use Compress, in the GNU Project we started " "looking for some other algorithm for data compression. Somebody wrote to us " "saying he had one. He had written a program and he decided to contribute it " "to us. We were going to release it, and just by chance I happened to see a " "copy of the <cite>New York Times</cite> that happened to have the weekly " "patent column in it. I didn't see a copy of the <cite>Times</cite> more " "than once every few months. So I looked at it, and it said that somebody " "had got a patent for “inventing a new method of compressing " "data.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "I figured I better take a look at this patent. I got a copy, and it turned " "out to cover the program that we were just a week away from releasing. So " "that program died before it was born. Later on we did find another " "algorithm which was unpatented. That became the program <a " "href=\"/software/gzip/\"> Gzip</a>, which is now effectively the de-facto " "standard for data compression. As an algorithm to use in a program for data " "compression, it was fine. People who wanted to do data compression could " "use Gzip instead of Compress. But the same patented LZW compression " "algorithm was also used in image formats such as <a " "href=\"/philosophy/gif.html\">GIF</a> format." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "And there, because the job that people wanted to do was not simply " "“Compress my data,” but “Make an image that people can " "display with their software,” it turned out to be very hard to switch " "over to a different algorithm. In fact, we have not been able to do it in " "10 years! Yes, people used the new Gzip algorithm to define <a " "href=\"https://www.w3.org/Graphics/PNG/\">another image format</a>, once " "people started getting threatened with lawsuits for using GIF files. But " "when we started saying to people “Hey, stop using GIF files, switch " "over to this!” people said, “We can't switch. The browsers " "don't support the new format yet.” And the browser developers said " "“We're not in a hurry about this. After all, nobody is using this " "file format.” <i class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "In effect, society had so much inertia in the use of that particular format " "[GIF] that we have not been able to get people to switch. Essentially, the " "community's use of the GIF format is still pushing sites into using GIF " "format, with the result that they are vulnerable to these threats." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "In fact, the situation is even more bizarre, because there are actually two " "patents covering the LZW compression algorithm. The patent office couldn't " "even tell that they were issuing two patents on the same thing. They " "couldn't keep track. There is a reason for this. It takes a while of study " "of these two patents to see that they really cover the same thing." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "If they were patents on some chemical process, it would be much easier. " "Because you could see what substances were being used, what the inputs were, " "what the outputs were, which physical actions are being taken. No matter " "how they are described, you'd see what they were and then you would see that " "they are similar." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "But when something is purely mathematical, you could have various ways to " "describe it, which are a lot more different. They are not superficially " "similar. You have to really understand them to see they are talking about " "the same thing. In the patent office, they don't have time. The US Patent " "Office, as of a few years ago, was spending 17 hours on the average per " "patent. This is not long enough to think carefully about them. So, of " "course they make mistakes like that. In fact, I told you about the program " "that died before it was born. Well, that algorithm also has had two patents " "issued for it in the US. Apparently, it is not that unusual." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "So, avoiding the patents may be easy {or it} may be impossible; it may be " "easy but it makes your program useless. It varies depending on the " "situation." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "Here is another point I should mention, that sometimes a company or " "consortium can make a format or protocol a de-facto standard. Then, if that " "format or protocol is patented, that's a real disaster for you. There are " "even official standards that are restricted by patents. There was a big " "political uproar last September when the <a " "href=\"https://www.w3.org/TR/patent-practice/\">World Wide Web " "Consortium</a> was proposing to start adopting standards that were covered " "by patents. The community objected, and they reversed themselves." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "They went back to insisting that patents had to be freely implementable by " "anyone, and that standards had to be free for anyone to implement. That is " "an interesting victory. I think it's the first time any standards body has " "made that decision. It's normal for standards bodies to be willing to put " "something in a standard which in fact is restricted by patents, and people " "are not allowed to go ahead and implement it freely. We need to go to other " "standards bodies and call on them to change their rules." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dt> msgid "2. Licensing the patent" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "The second possibility is, instead of avoiding the patent, to get a license " "for the patent. This is not necessarily an option. The patent holder does " "not have to offer you a license. It's not required. Ten years ago, the " "League for Programming Freedom got a letter asking for help from somebody " "whose family business was making gambling machinery for casinos, and they " "used computers back then. He received a threat from another company that " "said, “We have the patents. You are not allowed to make these " "things. Shut down.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "I looked at that patent. It covered having a number of computers on a " "network for playing games, such that each computer supported more than one " "game and allowed you to be playing more than one game at a time." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "You will find the patent offices really think that there is something " "brilliant about doing more than one of anything. <i " "class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>  They don't realize that, in computer " "science, that's the most obvious way to generalize anything. You did it " "once. Now you can do it any number of times, make a subroutine. They think " "that if you do anything twice instead of once, you made a new " "invention. That somehow means you are brilliant and nobody can possibly " "argue with your right to boss them around and restrict them. Anyway, he " "wasn't offered a license, and he had to shut down. He couldn't even afford " "really to go to court. I would say that particular patent was an obvious " "idea. It's possible that a judge might have agreed. We will never know, " "though, because he could not afford to go to court." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "However, a lot of patent holders do offer licenses. They often charge a lot " "of money for that, though. The company licensing the natural order " "recalculation patent was demanding 5% of the gross sales of every " "spreadsheet in the US. I am told that was the cheap pre-lawsuit price. If " "you actually made them sue you and they won, they'd demand more. You might " "be able to afford that 5% for licensing this one patent, but what if you " "need to license 20 different patents to make the program? Then all the money " "you take in has to go out to them. What if you need to license 21 patents?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "People in business told me that, practically speaking, two or three of them " "would make any business unfeasible." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "But there is a situation where licensing patents is a very good solution. " "That is if you are a multinational mega-corporation. Because these " "companies own a lot of patents, and they cross-license with each other. " "That way, they escape most of the harm that the patent system does and they " "only get the good. IBM published an <a " "href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20150329104135/http://progfree.org/Links/prep.ai.mit.edu/ibm.think.article\"> " "article</a> in Think magazine—I believe it was issue No. 5 of " "1990—on IBM's patent portfolio, which said that IBM got two kinds of " "benefits from its 9000 US patents. I believe the number is larger today. " "These were (1) collecting royalties, and (2) getting access to the patents " "of others. They said that the latter benefit was an order of magnitude " "greater. So, the benefit that IBM got from being allowed to use the ideas " "that were patented by others was 10 times the direct benefit IBM could get " "from licensing patents." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "What does this really mean? What is the benefit that IBM gets from this " "access to the patents of others? It's basically the benefit of being excused " "from the trouble that the patent system can cause you. The patent system is " "like a lottery. What happens with any given patent could be nothing, could " "be a windfall for some patent holder and a disaster for everyone else. But " "IBM being so big, for them it averages out. They get to measure the average " "harm and good of the patent system." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "For them, the trouble would have been 10 times the good. I say would have " "been because IBM, through cross-licensing, avoids experiencing that " "trouble. That trouble is only potential. It doesn't really happen to " "them. But when they measure the benefits of avoiding that trouble, they " "estimate it as 10 times the value of the money they collect from their " "patents." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "This phenomenon of cross-licensing refutes a common myth, the myth of the " "starving genius. The myth that patents “protect” the " "“small inventor.” Those terms are propaganda terms. You " "shouldn't use them. The scenario is like this: Suppose there is a brilliant " "designer of whatever, who has spent years by himself, starving in an attic, " "designing a new wonderful kind of whatever, and now wants to manufacture " "it. Isn't it a shame the big companies are going to go into competition with " "him, take away all the business and he'll “starve”?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "Well, I have to point out that people in high tech fields are not generally " "working on their own, and that ideas don't come in a vacuum—they are " "based on the work of others—and that these people have pretty good " "chances of getting a job if they need to these days. So this scenario, the " "idea that this brilliant idea came from this one person working alone, is " "unrealistic, and the idea that he is in danger of starving is unrealistic. " "But it is conceivable that somebody could have an idea, and this idea, maybe " "together with 100 or 200 other ideas, could be the basis of making some kind " "of product, and that big companies might want to compete with him." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "So let's see what happens if he tries to use a patent to stop them. He " "says, “Oh no, IBM. You can't compete with me. I've got this " "patent.” And IBM says, “Let's see. Let's look at your product. " "Hmmm. I've got this patent and this one and this one and this one and this " "one and this one, which parts of your product infringe. If you think you " "can fight against all of them in court, I'll just go back and look for some " "more. So, why don't you cross-license with me?” And then this " "brilliant small <i class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i> inventor says, “Well, " "OK, I'll cross-license.” And now he can go back and make these " "wonderful whatever it is, and so can IBM. IBM now gets access to his " "patent, and gets the right to compete with him, which means that this patent " "didn't “protect” him at all. The patent system doesn't really " "do that." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "The mega-corporations avoid, for the most part, the harm of the patent " "system. They see mainly the good side. That's why they want to have " "software patents. They are the ones who will benefit from it. But if you " "are really a small inventor, or work for a small company, the small company " "is not going to be able to do this. They try. The problem is that they " "cannot get enough patents to do this. You see, any given patent is pointing " "in a certain direction. So, if a small company has patents pointing there, " "there, and there <i class=\"aside\">[showing left side]</i>, and somebody " "over there <i class=\"aside\">[showing right side]</i> points a patent at " "them and says “Give me your money,” they are helpless, because " "they've got patents pointing there or near <i class=\"aside\">[showing left " "side]</i>, but not there <i class=\"aside\">[showing right side]</i>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "IBM can do it, because with these 9000 patents, they are pointing " "everywhere. No matter where you are, there is an IBM patent pointing at you, " "probably. So, IBM can always make you cross-license, almost always. But " "the small companies only occasionally can make someone cross-license. They " "will say they want patents for defensive purposes, but they won't get enough " "to be able to defend themselves." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "There are cases where even IBM cannot make someone cross-license. That is " "when there is a company whose sole business is taking a patent and squeezing " "money out of people. The company that had the natural order recalculation " "patent was exactly such a company. Their sole business was to threaten to " "sue people and collect money from people who were really developing " "something." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "There are no patents on legal procedures. <i " "class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>  I guess the lawyers sort of understand " "what a pain it would be to have to deal with the patent system themselves. " "The result is that there is no way you can get a patent to make that " "company, <a " "href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/14/business/a-white-knight-draws-cries-of-patent-blackmail.html\"> " "Refac</a>, cross-license with you. So they go around squeezing everyone. " "But I guess the companies like IBM figure that's part of the price of doing " "business so they can live with it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "So that's the possibility of licensing a patent, which may or may not be " "possible. And you may or may not be able to afford it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dt> msgid "3. Overturning the patent in court" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "Supposedly, in order to be patented, something has to be new, useful and " "unobvious. That's the language used in the US. I think other countries " "have different language which is pretty much equivalent to it. Of course, " "when the patent office gets into the game and they start interpreting new " "and unobvious, “new” turns out to mean “we don't have it " "in our files,” and “unobvious” tends to mean " "“unobvious to somebody with an IQ of 50.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "Somebody who studies most of the software patents issued in the US—or " "at least he used to; I don't know if he can still keep up with " "them—said that 90% of them wouldn't pass the Crystal City test, which " "meant, if the people in the patent office went outside to the news stand and " "got some computer magazines, they would see that these ideas were already " "known." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "The patent office does things that are so obviously foolish, you wouldn't " "even have to know the state of the art to see they are foolish. This is not " "limited to software. I once saw the famous Harvard mouse patent, which was " "obtained after Harvard genetically engineered a strain of mouse with a " "cancer causing gene. The cancer causing gene was already known, and was " "inserted using known techniques into an already existing strain of mouse. " "The patent they got covered inserting any cancer causing gene into any kind " "of mammal, using any method whatsoever. You don't have to know anything " "about genetic engineering to realize that is ridiculous." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "But I am told that this overclaiming is normal practice, and that the US " "Patent Office sometimes invited patent applicants to make their claims " "broader. Basically, make the claims broader until you think they are " "running into something else that's unambiguous prior art. See how much land " "grab in mental space you can get away with." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "When programmers look at a lot of software patents, they say, “This is " "ridiculously <a " "href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20040604051644/http://people.qualcomm.com/karn/patents/patent-comments.html\"> " "obvious</a>!” Patent bureaucrats have all sorts of excuses to justify " "ignoring what programmers think. They say “Oh! But you have to " "consider it in terms of the way things were 10 or 20 years ago.” Then " "they discovered that if they talk something to death then you can eventually " "lose your bearings. Anything can look unobvious if you tear it apart " "enough, analyze it enough. You simply lose all standard of obviousness, or " "at least lose the ability to justify any standard of obvious or unobvious. " "Then, of course, they describe the patent holders as brilliant inventors, " "all of them. Therefore we can't question their entitlement to power over " "what we can do." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "If you go to court, the judges are likely to be a little more stringent " "about the idea of what is obvious or not. But the problem is it costs " "millions of dollars to do that. I heard of one patent case, the defendant I " "remember was Qualcomm, and I believe the ruling ultimately was 13 million " "dollars, of which most went to pay the lawyers on both sides. There were a " "few million dollars left over for the plaintiff, because they lost." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "To a large extent, the question of the validity of a patent will depend on " "historical accidents. Lots of historical accidents, such as precisely what " "was published when, and which of those things somebody manages to find, " "which of them didn't get lost, the precise dates, and so on. So it's many " "historical accidents that determine whether the patent is valid." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "In fact, it is a weird thing the <a " "href=\"https://patents.justia.com/patent/4873662\"> British Telecom " "following hyperlinks together with phone access</a> patent, was applied for, " "I think, in 1975. I think it was in 1974 that I developed the Info package " "for the first time. The Info package allows you to traverse hyperlinks, and " "people did use telephones to dial up and access the system. So in fact, I " "produced a piece of prior art for that patent. That's the second patentable " "idea I've had in my life, but I don't think I have any proof of that. I " "didn't think this was interesting enough to publish it. After all, the idea " "of following hyperlinks, I got that from a demo of Engelbart's editor. He " "is the one who had an idea that was interesting to publish." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "I called it “poor man's hypertext,” because I had to implement " "it in the context of TECO. It wasn't as powerful as his hypertext, but it " "was at least useful for browsing documentation, which was all it was meant " "for, and as for there being dial-up access to the system, well, there was, " "but it didn't occur to me that the one had any particular thing to do with " "the other. I wasn't going to try to publish a paper saying “Oh! I " "implemented this poor man's hypertext, and guess what! There are dial-up " "lines on the computer too!” <i class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>  I " "suspect there is no way to tell precisely on what dates I implemented this. " "And was it published in any sense? Well, we invited guests to come in across " "the ARPAnet and log in on our machine, so they could have browsed " "documentation using Info, and seen the thing. And if they had asked us, " "they would have found we have dial-up access. But as you can see, " "historical accident determines whether you've got prior art." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "Now of course, there is a publication made by Engelbart about hypertext, " "which they are going to show. I don't think it says anything about having " "dial-ups on the computer however. So, whether it will suffice is not clear." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><dl><dd><p> msgid "" "So, this is an option, the possibility of going to court to overturn the " "patent. But, because of the expense, it is often out of the question even " "if you can find solid prior art that ought to be sufficient to overturn the " "patent. As a result, an invalid patent, a patent that nominally shouldn't " "have existed (but in fact lots and lots of them do) is a dangerous weapon. " "If somebody attacks you with an invalid patent, that can really cause a lot " "of trouble for you. You might be able to bluff them away by showing them " "the prior art. It depends whether they can get scared off that way or they " "might think “Well, you are just bluffing, we figure you can't really " "go to court. You can't afford it, so we'll sue you anyway.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "All of these three possibilities are things that sometimes you can manage to " "use, but often you can't. So you have to face patent after patent after " "patent. Each time you may be able to find one of these three possibilities " "you can use, then there is another patent, then another, and another. It " "gets like crossing a minefield. Each step you take, each design decision, " "probably won't step on a patent. So you can take a few steps and, probably, " "there won't be an explosion. But the chance that you will get all the way " "through the minefield and get to develop the program you wanted to develop " "without ever stepping on a patent gets less and less as the program gets " "bigger." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "Specificities of the software field" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, people used to say to me, “Well, there are patents in other " "fields, why should software be exempt?” Note the bizarre assumption in " "there that somehow we are all supposed to suffer through the patent system. " "It is like saying “Some people get cancer. Why should you be " "exempt?” <i>[laughs]</i>  As I see it, each person who doesn't " "get cancer is good. But there is, behind that, a less biased question, " "which is a good question, which is: Is software different from other fields? " "Should patent policy be different in different fields? And if so, why?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Let me address that question: patents relate to different fields differently " "because in various fields patents relate to products differently." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "On the one extreme we have pharmaceuticals, where a given chemical formula " "would be patented, so that patent covers one and only one product. Some " "other product wouldn't be covered by the existing patent. If there is to be " "a patent for this new product, the patent holder would be whoever developed " "the new product." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "That fits in with the naive idea of the patent system that we have, that, if " "you are designing a new product, you are going to get “The " "Patent,” the idea that there is one patent per product and that it " "covers <em>the</em> idea of that product. In some fields that's closer to " "being true. In other fields it's farther from being true. Software is at " "the opposite extreme. This is because software packages are very big, " "usually, and they use many different ideas in a new combination. If the " "program is new, it's not just copied, then it's probably using a different " "combination of ideas combined, of course, with newly written code, because " "you can't just magically say the names of these ideas and have them work. " "You have to implement them all." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You have to implement them all in that combination. The result is that, " "when you write a program, you are using lots of different ideas, any one of " "them might be patented by somebody. A pair of them might be patented as a " "combination by somebody. There might be several different ways of " "describing one idea, which might be patented by various different people. " "So there are possibly thousands of things, thousands of points of " "vulnerability in your program, which might be patented by somebody else " "already. This is why software patents tend to obstruct the progress of " "software—the work of software development." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If it were one patent-one product, then these patents wouldn't obstruct the " "development of products, because if you developed a new product it wouldn't " "be patented by somebody else already. But when one product corresponds to " "many different ideas combined, it becomes very likely that your new product " "is going to be patented by somebody else already. In fact, there is " "economic research now showing just how imposing a patent system on a field " "where there is incremental innovation can retard progress." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You see, the advocates of software patents say “Well yes, there may be " "problems, but more important than any problems, the patents must promote " "innovation, and that is so important it doesn't matter what problems they " "cause.” Of course, they don't say that out loud because it is " "ridiculous, but implicitly they want you to believe that, as long as it " "promotes progress, that outweighs any possible cost. But actually, there is " "no reason to believe it does promote progress. We now have a model showing " "precisely how patents <em>can</em> retard progress. The case where that " "model can fit describes the software field pretty well: incremental " "innovation." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Why is software on that extreme of the spectrum? The reason is that in " "software we are developing idealized mathematical objects. You can build a " "complicated castle and have it rest on a thin line, and it will stay up " "because it doesn't weigh anything. In other fields, people have to cope " "with the perversity of matter—of physical objects. Matter does what " "it is going to do. You can try to model it, and if the actual behavior " "doesn't fit the model, tough on you. Because the challenge is to make " "physical objects that really work." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If I wanted to put an <code>if</code> statement inside a <code>while</code> " "statement, I don't have to worry about whether the <code>if</code> statement " "will oscillate at a certain frequency and rub against the <code>while</code> " "statement and eventually they will fracture. <i " "class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>  I don't have to worry whether it will " "oscillate at a certain higher frequency and induce a signal in the value of " "some other variable. I don't have to worry about how much current that " "<code>if</code> statement will draw, whether it can dissipate the heat there " "inside that <code>while</code> statement. Whether there will be a voltage " "drop across the <code>while</code> statement that will make the " "<code>if</code> statement not function." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "I don't have to worry that if I run this program in a salt-water " "environment, that the salt water might get in between the <code>if</code> " "statement and the <code>while</code> statement and cause corrosion. I don't " "have to worry, when I refer to the value of a variable, whether I am " "exceeding the fan-out limit by referring to it too many times. I don't have " "to worry, when I refer to the variable, how much capacitance it has and " "whether there has been sufficient time to charge up the value. I don't have " "to worry, when I write the program, about how I'm going to physically " "assemble each copy, and whether I can manage to get access to put that " "<code>if</code> statement inside the <code>while</code> statement. And I " "don't have to worry about how I'm going to gain access in case the " "<code>if</code> statement breaks, to remove it and replace it with a new " "one. <i class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So many problems that we don't have to worry about in software. That makes " "it fundamentally easier. It's fundamentally easier to write a program than " "to design a physical object that's going to work. This might seem strange " "because you have probably heard people talking about how hard software is to " "design, and how this is a big problem and how we are going to solve it. " "They are not really talking about the same question I am. See, I'm " "comparing physical and software systems of the same complexity, the same " "number of parts. I'm saying the software system is much easier to design " "than the physical system. But the intelligence of people in these various " "fields is the same, so what do we do when we are confronted with an easy " "field? We just push it farther! We push our abilities to the limit." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If systems of the same size are easy, let's make systems which are ten times " "as big, then it will be hard! <i class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>  That's " "what we do! We make software systems far bigger in terms of number of parts " "than physical systems. A physical system whose design has a million " "different pieces in it is a mega project. A computer program whose design " "has a million pieces in it, that's maybe 300,000 lines, a few people will " "write that in a couple of years. That's not particularly a giant program. " "GNU Emacs now has several million pieces in its design I think, because it " "has a million lines of code. This was a project done with essentially no " "funding whatsoever. Mostly done by people in their spare time." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "There is another big saving. If you designed a physical product, the next " "thing you have to do is design the factory to make it. To build this " "factory may cost millions or tens of millions, whereas to make copies of the " "program, you just have to type <code>copy</code>. The same " "<code>copy</code> command will copy any program. You want copies on CD, " "fine. You burn a master CD and send it off to a CD plant. They will use " "the same equipment that will copy any contents on a CD. You don't have to " "build a factory to <em>make</em> this product. There is tremendous " "simplification and tremendous reduction in costs of designing things." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The result is, say for an automobile company, if they are going to spend 50 " "million dollars to build a factory, to build a new model of auto, they can " "hire some lawyers to cope with some patent license negotiations. They could " "even cope with a lawsuit if they wanted to. Designing a program of the same " "complexity might cost 50 thousand dollars, or 100 thousand dollars. By " "comparison, the cost of dealing with the patent system is crushing. " "Actually designing a program with the same complexity as the mechanical " "design of an auto, that's probably a month work. How many parts does an " "auto have… that is if it is an auto that doesn't have computers in " "it?[<a href=\"#f1\">1</a>] There are not that many parts, you see. Which is " "not to say designing a good one is easy, but just that there are not that " "many different things in it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The result is, software really is different from other fields because we are " "working with mathematical stuff. Designing something is far, far easier. And " "the result is we regularly make systems that are much, much larger, and do " "so with just a few people. The result is that the patent system then, " "instead of being close to “one product, one patent,” we are in a " "system where one product involves many, many ideas that could be patented " "already." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The best way to explain it by analogy is with symphonies. A symphony is " "also long and has many notes in it, and probably uses many musical ideas. " "Imagine if the governments of Europe in the 1700's had decided they wanted " "to promote the progress of symphonic music by establishing a European " "Musical Patent Office that would give patents for any kind of musical idea " "that you could state in words. Then imagine it is around 1800 and you are " "Beethoven and you want to write a symphony. You are going to find that " "getting your symphony to be legal, so that it doesn't infringe any patents, " "is going to be harder than writing a good symphony." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "When you complain about this, the patent holders would say “Ah " "Beethoven, you are just bitching because you have no ideas of your own. All " "you want to do is rip off our inventions.” Beethoven, as it happens, " "had a lot of new musical ideas, but he had to use a lot of existing musical " "ideas in order to make recognizable music, in order to make music that " "listeners could possibly like, that they could recognize as music. Nobody " "is so brilliant that he can re-invent music and make something that people " "want to listen to. <a " "href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Boulez\">Pierre Boulez</a> said " "he would try to do that, and… who listens to Pierre Boulez? <i " "class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Nobody is so brilliant he can re-invent all computer science, completely " "new. If he did, he'd make something that the users would find so strange " "that they wouldn't want to use it. If you look at a word processor today, " "you'll find, I think, hundreds of different features. If you develop a nice " "new innovative word processor, that means there are some new ideas in it, " "but there must be hundreds of old ideas in it. If you are not allowed to " "use them, you cannot make an innovative word processor." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Because the work of software development is so big, the result is that we " "don't need any artificial scheme to incentivize new ideas. You just have " "people writing software and they will have some new ideas. If you want to " "write a program, you want to make it good. Some ideas will come to you, and " "some of them you will see a way to use. What used to happen—because I " "was in the software field before there were software patents—was most " "of the developers would publish any new ideas that they thought were " "noteworthy, that they thought they might get any credit or respect for." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The ideas that were too small or not impressive enough, they would not " "publish because that would be silly. Now the patent system is supposed to " "encourage disclosure of ideas. In fact, in the old days, nobody kept the " "ideas secret. They kept the code secret, it's true. The code, after all, " "represented the bulk of the work. They would typically keep the code secret " "and publish the ideas. That way, the employees could get some credit and " "feel good; you know, they were allowed to publish papers. After software " "patents, they still kept the code secret and they patented the ideas. So, in " "fact, disclosure has not been encouraged in any meaningful sense. The same " "things are kept secret now as were kept secret before, but the ideas, which " "used to be published so we could use them, now are likely to be patented and " "off-limits for 20 years." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "Addressing the problem of software patents in public policies" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "What can a country do to change this? How should we change the policy to " "solve this problem? There are two places you can attack it. One is the " "place where patents are being applied for and issued, in the patent office. " "And the other is when patents are being applied—that is, the question " "of what does a patent cover." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Changing the criteria for issuing patents, or simply keeping a good criteria " "for issuing patents, can work in a country which has not authorized software " "patents before; for instance, for the most part, in Europe. Simply to " "clearly re-enforce the European Patent Office's rules which say that " "software is not patentable. This is a good solution for Europe. Europe is " "now considering a directive on software patents. The directive I suppose " "may be broader than that but one of its important implications is for " "software patents. Simply by modifying this to say software ideas cannot be " "patented will keep the problem out of Europe for the most part, except for " "some countries that may have admitted the problem on their " "own—unfortunately, one of them being the UK, unfortunately for you." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "That approach won't work in the US. The reason is that the US already has " "large numbers of software patents, and any change in the criteria for " "issuing patents won't get rid of the existing ones. However in fact, these " "patents are not officially labeled as software patents. I say software " "patents, but what do I really mean? I mean patents that might potentially " "apply to software, that might potentially get you sued for writing software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The patent office doesn't divide patents into software patents and other " "patents. So, in fact, any patent might conceivably get you sued for writing " "software if it could apply to some software. So, in the US, a solution " "would have to be done through changing the applicability, the scope of " "patents, saying that a pure software implementation, running on general " "purpose computer hardware which does not in itself infringe the patent, is " "not covered by any patent and you can't be sued for it. That's the other " "kind of solution." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But the first kind of solution, the solution that operates on what kinds of " "patents can be valid is a good solution for Europe to use." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "When the US started having software patents, there was no political debate. " "In fact, nobody noticed. The software field, for the most part, didn't even " "notice. There was a Supreme Court decision in 1981 which considered a " "patent on a process for curing rubber. The ruling was that the fact that " "the apparatus included a computer and a program as part of the process to " "cure the rubber did not make it unpatentable." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The appeals court the next year, which considers all patent cases, reversed " "the qualifiers. They said the fact that there is a computer and a program " "in this makes it patentable. The fact that there is a computer and program " "in anything makes it patentable. This is why the US started having business " "procedure patents. Because the business procedures were carried out on a " "computer and that made them patentable. So this ruling was made, and I " "think the natural order recalculation patent was one of the first or might " "have been even the first." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But throughout the 80's we mostly didn't know about this. It was around " "1990 that programmers in the US started to become aware that they were faced " "with a danger from software patents. So, I saw how the field worked before " "then and how it worked after. I saw no particular speed up in progress " "after 1990. There was no political debate in the US, but in Europe there " "has been a big political debate. Several years ago there was a push to " "amend the Munich treaty that established the <a " "href=\"https://www.epo.org/\"> European Patent Office</a>. It has a <a " "href=\"https://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/epc/1973/e/ar52.html\"> " "clause saying that software is not patentable</a>. The push was to amend " "that to start allowing software patents. But the community took notice of " "this. It was actually free software developers and free software users who " "took the lead." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "We are not the only ones threatened by software patents. All software " "developers are threatened by software patents and even software users are " "threatened. For instance, Paul Heckel, when Apple wasn't very scared of his " "threats, he threatened to start suing Apple customers. That, Apple found " "very scary. They figured they couldn't afford to have their customers being " "sued like that, even if they would ultimately win. So users can get sued " "too, either as a way of attacking a developer, or just as a way to squeeze " "money out of them on their own or cause mayhem to them on their own." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "All software developers and users are vulnerable, but it was the free " "software community in Europe that took the lead in organizing opposition. " "In fact, twice now the countries that govern the European Patent Office " "voted not to amend that treaty. Then the EU took a hand, and the " "directorates of the EU were divided on the issue." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The one whose job is to promote software is against software patents, it " "seems. But they were not in charge of this issue. It's the open market " "directorate that is in charge, and that's led by somebody who is in favor of " "software patents. They basically disregarded public opinion that had been " "expressed to them, and they proposed a directive to allow software " "patents.[<a href=\"#f2\">2</a>] The French government has already said they " "are against it. People are working in various other governments in Europe " "to oppose software patents, and it is vital to start doing so here." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "According to Hartmut Pilch, who is one of the leaders in the European " "struggle against software patents, the main impetus comes from the <a " "href=\"https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/intellectual-property-patents\">UK " "Patent Office</a>. The UK Patent Office is simply biased in favor of " "software patents. It had a public consultation, and most of the responses " "were opposed to software patents. They then wrote a report saying that " "people seem to be content with them, <i class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i> " "completely disregarding the answers. You see, the free software community " "said, “Please send the answers to them, and please send your answers " "to us too and we'll publish them.” So they published these answers, " "which were opposed generally. You'd have never guessed that from the report " "that the UK Patent Office published." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "They [the UK Patent and Trademark Office] use a term that they call " "“technical effect.” This is a term which can stretch " "tremendously. You are supposed to think it means a program idea would only " "be patentable if it relates closely to specific physical activities. If " "that is the interpretation, it would mostly solve the problem. If the only " "software ideas that could be patented were those that really did relate to a " "particular technical, specific physical result that you might have patented " "if you didn't use a program, that would be OK. The problem is you can " "stretch that term. You can describe the result you get by running any " "program as a physical result. How does this physical result differ from " "every other? Well it is as a result of this computation. The result is that " "the UK Patent Office is proposing something that looks like it leads to " "mostly solving the problem, and really gives <i>carte blanche</i> for " "patenting almost anything." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The people in the same ministry are also involved in a copyright issue which " "really has nothing to do with software patents except that it's being " "handled by the same people. It's a question of interpreting the recent EU " "copyright directive, a horrible law like the <a " "href=\"https://www.eff.org/issues/dmca\">Digital Millennium Copyright Act in " "the US</a>. But there is some latitude for countries to decide how to " "implement it. The UK is proposing the most draconian possible way of " "implementing this directive. You could greatly reduce the harm that it does " "by implementing it properly. The UK wants to maximize the tyrannical effect " "of this directive. It seems there is a certain group, the <a " "href=\"https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20070603164510/http://www.dti.gov.uk/\"> " "Department of Trade and Industry [archived]</a>, <i " "class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i> who need to be reined in. <i " "class=\"aside\">[laughs]</i>  It is necessary to put a check on their " "activities. Stop their creating new forms of power." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Software patents tie up every software developer and every computer user in " "a new form of bureaucracy. If the businesses that use computers realized " "how much trouble this can cause for them, they would be up in arms, and I'm " "sure they could stop it. Business doesn't like being tied up in " "bureaucracy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Sometimes, of course, it serves an important purpose. There are some areas " "where we wish the UK government did a more careful job of tying certain " "businesses up in bureaucracy, like when it involves moving animals " "around.[<a href=\"#f3\">3</a>] But in some cases, when it doesn't serve any " "purpose except to create artificial monopolies, so that somebody can " "interfere with software development, squeeze money out of developers and " "users, then we should reject it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "We need to make management aware of what software patents will do to them. " "Get their support in <a href=\"https://ffii.org/\">fighting against software " "patents in Europe</a>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The battle is not over. It still can be won. <i " "class=\"aside\">[applause]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "Footnotes" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ol><li> msgid "" "There are approximately 300-400 unique parts in an automatic transmission, " "and a transmission is generally the most complicated component of an auto. " "To design a transmission may take six months to a year, and even then it may " "take longer to actually get it built and functioning. However, a program " "with 500 to 600 functional parts would have 200 to 300 lines of actual code, " "and would probably take a good programmer a day to a week to write, test and " "debug." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ol><li> msgid "" "On 6 July 2005, the European Parliament rejected the software patent " "directive by 648 out of 680 votes. However, we must not forget the issue of " "software patents, as those who were pressing for patenting are trying to " "revive the recently thrown-out directive. We also have to ensure that the " "European Patent Office (EPO) and the national offices in different EU " "countries stop conceding patents for software included in other kinds of " "inventions." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ol><li> msgid "To make it harder for foot-and-mouth disease to spread." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "This speech 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 © 2002, 2006, 2023, 2024 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 ""