# LANGUAGE translation of https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/trivial-patent.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: trivial-patent.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 "The Anatomy of a Trivial Patent - GNU project - Free Software Foundation" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h2> msgid "The Anatomy of a Trivial Patent" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><address> msgid "by <a href=\"https://www.stallman.org/\">Richard Stallman</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Programmers are well aware that many of the existing software patents cover " "laughably obvious ideas. Yet the patent system's defenders often argue that " "these ideas are nontrivial, obvious only in hindsight. And it is " "surprisingly difficult to defeat them in debate. Why is that?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "One reason is that any idea can be made to look complex when analyzed to " "death. Another reason is that these trivial ideas often look quite complex " "as described in the patents themselves. The patent system's defenders can " "point to the complex description and say, “How can anything this " "complex be obvious?”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "I will use an example to show you how. Here's claim number one from US " "patent number 5,963,916, applied for in October 1996:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "1. A method for enabling a remote user to preview a portion of a " "pre-recorded music product from a network web site containing pre-selected " "portions of different pre-recorded music products, using a computer, a " "computer display and a telecommunications link between the remote user's " "computer and the network web site, the method comprising the steps of:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><ul><li> msgid "" "a) using the remote user's computer to establish a telecommunications link " "to the network web site wherein the network web site comprises (i) a central " "host server coupled to a communications network for retrieving and " "transmitting the pre-selected portion of the pre-recorded music product upon " "request by a remote user and (ii) a central storage device for storing " "pre-selected portions of a plurality of different pre-recorded music " "products;" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "b) transmitting user identification data from the remote user's computer to " "the central host server thereby allowing the central host server to identify " "and track the user's progress through the network web site;" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "c) choosing at least one pre-selected portion of the pre-recorded music " "products from the central host server;" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "d) receiving the chosen pre-selected portion of the pre-recorded products; " "and" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "e) interactively previewing the received chosen pre-selected portion of the " "pre-recorded music product." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "That sure looks like a complex system, right? Surely it took a real clever " "guy to think of this? No, but it took cleverness to make it seem so " "complex. Let's analyze where the complexity comes from:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "1. A method for enabling a remote user to preview a portion of a " "pre-recorded music product from a network web site containing pre-selected " "portions" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "That states the principal part of their idea. They put selections from " "certain pieces of music on a server so a user can listen to them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "of different pre-recorded music products," msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This emphasizes their server stores selections from more than one piece of " "music." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "It is a basic principle of computer science that if a computer can do a " "thing once, it can do that thing many times, on different data each " "time. Many patents pretend that applying this principle to a specific case " "makes an “invention.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "using a computer, a computer display and a telecommunications link between " "the remote user's computer and the network web site," msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "This says they are using a server on a network." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "the method comprising the steps of:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "a) using the remote user's computer to establish a telecommunications link " "to the network web site" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This says that the user connects to the server over the network. (That's " "the way one uses a server.)" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "wherein the network web site comprises (i) a central host server coupled to " "a communications network" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This informs us that the server is on the net. (That is typical of " "servers.)" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "for retrieving and transmitting the pre-selected portion of the pre-recorded " "music product upon request by a remote user" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "This repeats the general idea stated in the first two lines." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "and (ii) a central storage device for storing pre-selected portions of a " "plurality of different pre-recorded music products;" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "They have decided to put a hard disk (or equivalent) in their computer and " "store the music samples on that. Ever since around 1980, this has been the " "normal way to store anything on a computer for rapid access." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Note how they emphasize once again the fact that they can store more than " "one selection on this disk. Of course, every file system will let you store " "more than one file." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This says that they keep track of who you are and what you access—a " "common (though nasty) thing for web servers to do. I believe it was common " "already in 1996." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "In other words, the user clicks to say which link to follow. That is " "typical for web servers; if they had found another way to do it, that might " "have been an invention." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "When you follow a link, your browser reads the contents. This is typical " "behavior for a web browser." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This says that your browser plays the music for you. (That is what many " "browsers do, when you follow a link to an audio file.)" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now you see how they padded this claim to make it into a complex idea: they " "combined their own idea (stated in two lines of text) with important aspects " "of what computers, networks, web servers, and web browsers do. This adds up " "to the so-called invention for which they received the patent." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This example is typical of software patents. Even the occasional patent " "whose idea is nontrivial has the same sort of added complication." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "Now look at a subsequent claim:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "3. The method of claim 1 wherein the central memory device comprises a " "plurality of compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROMs)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "What they are saying here is, “Even if you don't think that claim 1 is " "really an invention, using CD-ROMs to store the data makes it an invention " "for sure. An average system designer would never have thought of storing " "data on a CD.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "Now look at the next claim:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><blockquote><p> msgid "" "4. The method of claim 1 wherein the central memory device comprises a RAID " "array drive." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "A RAID array is a group of disks set up to work like one big disk, with the " "special feature that, even if one of the disks in the array has a failure " "and stops working, all the data are still available on the other disks in " "the group. Such arrays have been commercially available since long before " "1996, and are a standard way of storing data for high availability. But " "these brilliant inventors have patented the use of a RAID array for this " "particular purpose." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Trivial as it is, this patent would not necessarily be found legally invalid " "if there is a lawsuit about it. Not only the US Patent Office but the " "courts as well tend to apply a very low standard when judging whether a " "patent is “unobvious.” This patent might pass muster, according " "to them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "What's more, the courts are reluctant to overrule the Patent Office, so " "there is a better chance of getting a patent overturned if you can show a " "court prior art that the Patent Office did not consider. If the courts are " "willing to entertain a higher standard in judging unobviousness, it helps to " "save the prior art for them. Thus, the proposals to “make the system " "work better” by providing the Patent Office with a better database of " "prior art could instead make things worse." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "It is very hard to make a patent system behave reasonably; it is a complex " "bureaucracy and tends to follow its structural imperatives regardless of " "what it is “supposed” to do. The only practical way to get rid " "of the many obvious patents on software features and business practices is " "to get rid of all patents in those fields. Fortunately, that would be no " "loss: the unobvious patents in the software field do no good either. What " "software patents do is put software developers and users under threat." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The patent system is supposed, intended, to promote progress, and those who " "benefit from software patents ask us to believe without question that they " "do have that effect. But programmers' experience shows otherwise. New " "theoretical analysis shows that this is no paradox. (See <a " "href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20000815064858/http://www.researchoninnovation.org/patent.pdf\">researchoninnovation.org/patent.pdf</a> " "on web.archive.org.) There is no reason why society should expose software " "developers and users to the danger of software patents." 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 © 2006, 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 ""