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Stallman on Software Patents

Posted by michael on from the symphony-in-perl-minor dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes "On Monday Richard Stallman gave a speech at the Cambridge University (UK) Computer Lab. Over at ZDNet UK they have a transcription of the speech - the most eloquent discussion of the subject I have yet seen. Software patents victimise developers, he says, but there are ways to get around them. The best part is his comparison of writing software to writing symphonies: 'Oh Beethoven,' they would have said in 1800 if there had been patents on music, 'you're just bitching because you've got no ideas of your own.'"

2 of 388 comments (clear)

  1. Other Talk: Copyright vs Community by thick_sliced · · Score: 5, Informative
    Stallman also recently gave a talk at Queen Mary, University of London.
    An audio version of the talk can be found at:

    http://www.odl.qmul.ac.uk/stallman/

  2. Public key cryptography patents, not "PGP patent" by Xilman · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was present at this event. Despite what ZDNet claims, RMS did not use the term "PGP patent" but, correctly, described it as the public key cryptography patent.

    The "transcript" is abbreviated which is acceptable, maybe even laudable, but it is also an inaccurate record of what RMS actually said --- which is not.

    IMO, Stallman gave an extremely good talk aimed at those who were not experts on how the patent system works in practice. Far more eloquent than I'd anticipated from his previous writings on this and related subjects.

    Paul

    --
    Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate