Slashdot Mirror
European MP Responds on Software Patents
Wolfbone writes "The Guardian newspaper has a contributed article from the European politician Arlene McCarthy in which she responds to a previous article in the same organ by RMS and Nick Hill on the issue of software patents. If the appalling mixture of misrepresentation, non sequitur, solecism and faux-naivete does not make your blood boil, you are a cold fish indeed."
IMHO, this is just a lame attempt to ridicule RMS et al.
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So, she does the normal M(E)P thing of speaking without saying anthing. Looking at this report, though, it appears that what she is trying to say is that the rules will only allow software to be patented as part of another system.
So, patents like the Amazon one-click patent wouldn't be allowed, but you could for example patent a novel ECG machine along with the software that is 'part' of it.
The newspeak description of Free/Libre Software as "a different sort of monopoly" suggests to me the phrase passed through the Rt Hon MEP having come from a briefer.
So can anyone pinpoint the briefing person, company, or interest concerned?
I recently followed up such a lead in one of the 12 references to Linux in the record of the Houses of Parliament (Hansard) and determined that the Shadow Minister for Media etc had got his disinformation on DeCSS from the Daily Telegraph but I have yet to track it back through the Torygraph to wherever it was injected.
His article may have boiled her blood, but it seemed pretty spot on to me, the quote from Bill G especially.
His point is this law was written by the Business Software Alliance in such a way and to use such vague language that it will be up to 'interpretation' only to the richest corporates with the most expensive lawyers. I.e., they are taking a space where there is a need for a law and plugging their law - dress up as "free and good" to placate those with a call for it but engineered to benefit only them.
Also, she mentioned "With many of our traditional industries migrating to the Far East leaving behind job losses, we Europeans are having to rely on licensing out inventiveness to generate income and create jobs."
Since when does Amazon having a patent secure that patent to the country it was registered in?! Either she is grossly incompetant, plain stupid, or cunning and devious.
In her article, she says that:
So I've written her a letter, suggesting that open source software explicitly be made exempt from patent enforcement. If what she says in her article is true, this would have no effect, so she's got no legitimate reason to oppose it.
My weblog has an article that goes into this in more detail.
If you want to contact Arlene McCarthy, and politely tell her your views, she has a website.
Perhaps, but it does seem a debatable point. The GPL specifically imposes restrictions on what can be done with software under it. In order to extend any of the software, you have to agree to those terms, some of which are quite restrictive. It could be argued that the GPL community holds a monopoly on GPL software development. You're free to join, but you have to do so under their rules, some of which are more restrictive than some commercial contracts. Is that fair? Sure. But it's not total freedom. The BSD license is much more "free" in that sense, and putting things in the public domain is even more so.
That said, I completely agree that her article seemed quite factual. Her assertion that she is trying to prevent US-style business-method patents is extremely encouraging. Nothing RMS said directly challenged this claim. He just argued "patents bad; EU doing patent stuff; bad bad bad." I didn't see any specific claims about the current EU directive under consideration except one unsubstantiated claim that the BSA wrote it. What does he mean "we detected it?" Based on the radioactive signature perhaps? Maybe the smell?
Euro MPs are next to useless because the European Parliament is virtually powerless.
This may be true in general terms, but they do have considerable powers to amend European legislation, which is most of the legislation that could harm free software (e.g. Copyright Directive, Software Patent Directive).
The proposed directive was written in a Word file, and the original author information appeared in the metadata - that's how they know the BSA were involved.
I thought Arlene's response was more anti-Free/Libre/Open Source Software than anything I've seen in a long time, and it's bizarre because rms and Nick Hill didn't raise that issue at all. Her article wasn't factual in any way, shape or form - she said she was against business methods, for example, but offered no actual example of actions which back that up - in fact, her previous actions indicate she's in favour.
Useful URLs for people in the UK: FFII UK, More info on software patents. We can still stop them putting these things in place.
"Elmo knows where you live!" - The Simpsons
But when she argues later in her article, it's not clear at all that she has any sophisticated definition of how software patents are different from what she's arguing. (RMS's article was clearer on that, and it was a chief criticism of the legislation.) In summary, she didn't refute or define anything.
To me, she seems to make some sense. I know software patents are bad on slashdot, but maybe that's because slashdot's only familiar with the insane US patent system. She actually makes it clear in the article that she doesn't want a US system.
..." gDict only knew 1.5 of those words, but I'm assuming it's a fancy way of saying anyone being pro software patents are morons. Did the poster notice that the article was pretty moderatly worded and forthcoming? Did he RTA?
I don't think software patents are evil by nature, it can be applicable in a few cases. However I see a problem of patents limiting the users legal rights to contents. Say firm M gets a patent on a fantastic text compression algorithm which they use as a part of a de-facto file format that stores formatted text. Now developer S can't legally develop a reader of this format to use on his operating system that isn't supported by M.
Maybe if someone could solve this problem then software patents could be feasible. Maybe - as someone else proposed here - open-source should be excempted from patents. Some sort of a patent system limited to commercial activities. Patent infridgement would be easy though with the code legally as open-source.
Btw.: "... non sequitur, solecism and faux-naivete
Look a monkey!
She's calling a system with more opportunities for imposing patents more "liberal" and a less patent-drenched society more "restrictive".
/bin/cp doesn't exist might be an appealing idea to some but it is just a game of pretends these days. Things can be copied. Deal with it.
That's pretty weird. If I were to choose such politically loaded words to describe patent systems, I'd have 'em switched the other way around, but I probably wouldn't use them at all.
She also writes: "With many of our traditional industries migrating to the Far East leaving behind job losses, we Europeans are having to rely on licensing out inventiveness to generate income and create jobs."
That's pretty silly and not likely to work in the long run. Imagine a future where non-european countries provide all goods and services needed - why should they want to trade with Europe? Because we have "inventions?" That's supposed to be Europes schtick, that Europeans are "smart"? Even if we'd have a fraction of the worlds inventiveness, what's to stop the aforementioned Asian countries from declaring our patent system null and void? (Along with some other IP practices like say, copyright.) Because "otherwise we won't trade with them?" That's just silly. If all we have to "offer" is slick ad campaigns and ruthless corporate practices along with a few good "ideas" - basically "ownership of ideas" - why should they want to trade? They could just copy it (assuming their own inventions weren't enough - there's plenty of good ideas coming out of Asia).
(And please don't talk of using military might to enforce an IP system internationally. My every fiber and cell tell's me that's not a just cause.)
Just saying that "we own this!" and pointing at words, ideas... you might argue some intellectual property practices are just but you can't expect everyone to agree (I certainly don't, and I even live in Europe), especially not when it could be a dumb move in international economics for a country to blindly abide by another's IP claims.
And if she's not talking about IP as an export product, then why bother? Selling each other "air" would jack up the GNP but it sure wouldn't raise living standards, it would only be a pointless excercise in number juggling. Same would apply to selling "ownership rights to ideas". Note that I'm not saying that the ideas themselves are without value - having someone on the payroll to sit and make up ideas might be worth it - but once the cat's out of the bag the ideas are easily copyable. Preventing that
Lastly, she's calling free software (she seems especially focused on copyleft software) "[A] form of monopoly by imposing a copyright licence system on users".
That's just not true.
Unlike patents, anyone's free to reimplement copylefted software any way they choose.
And unlike plain copyrighted proprietary software, anyone can use the copylefted software (both the program and source code) as long as they don't prevent others from doing the same.
Sure, the GPL has some practical problem (for example enforced warranty disclaimers, and problems with compability with other copylefted licenses) but it's definitely not a "monopoly". More like an "omnipoly" where every man, woman and child on the planet has the same right to the program.
Thats doublespeak. There is no muddle on software patents. They are not currently allowed. There is a drift towards US type problems - paying the EPO on the basis of patents approved not reviewed, inability to spot prior art etc
A computer program and a business method are the same thing. Its dishonest to claim otherwise IMHO. A software patent is a defined series of steps with conditions performed by the box on your desk.. A business method is a defined series of steps with conditions performed by a human at the desk.
Reality gets even murkier.
A DSP decodes MP3 audio. Is that a hardware patent on the DSP, a software patent on the code in it or neither
A human sits down with a calculator and decodes the MP3 by hand. Is that a hardware patent, a software patent, or a business method ?
In her article, Arlene McCarthy wrote:
To me, this is the most blood-boiling point. I was there at the parliamentary hearing in Brussels in early May. Arlene McCarthy was not. The hearing was a forum for SMEs (Small-to-Medium Enterprises) to present their take on the proposed software patent directive. The prevailing opinion was so unanimous it was boring: software patents are bad. Enterpreneurs and investors pleaded lawmakers to stick to and reaffirm the spirit of the 1973 Munich convention. Yeah, supporters of Free Software were there too (strong Debian contingent, hi, guys!), but by no means in the majority.
I could hardly muster the willpower to talk to anyone during those two days, it was so depressing. No one of the opposing viewpoint showed up, effectively reducing the conference and the hearing to a feel-good get-in-our-of-your-systems-then-go-home kind of event. The only supporter of the directive was Elly Plooij van Gorsel (chairwoman of one of the three committees in charge of the directive), who showed up for the last thirty minutes, took some notes, evaded answering any questions, then left. An enterpreneur even said to her face: I'm the one who's supposed to be protected here, and I'm here to tell you, I don't want your protection. This went wholly unanswered.
So allow me not to suspend my disbelief in Ms. McCarthy's comment quoted above. BTW, Ms. McCarthy is also a chairwoman of a committee handling the directive (of the most powerful of the three). What I saw and read and got to know so far all point into one direction: she's entirely aware of what she does, she just doesn't care about flushing the European SMEs down the toilet. The American multinationals sure can pay for more educational opportunities taking place in Hawaii.
Posted as AC on purpose.
A human sits down with a calculator and decodes the MP3 by hand. Is that a hardware patent, a software patent, or a business method ?
I appologize for mixing issues here, but you just brought up my favorite objection to the DMCA. What if a human sits down with a calculator and circumvents DRM by hand? And you don't even need the calculator - the entire process can be done completely mentally. The DMCA anti-circumvention provision makes it a crime to think certain thoughts!
In a similar vein, software patents give a monopoly on thinking certian thoughts. Any software that can be run on a computer can also be run purely mentally by thinking through the program line by line. At least violating a patent isn't a criminal act, but you can still get sued in civil for it.
There should be absolutely NO restrictions on thinking - on doing math - on software - on processing information. They are all fundamentally the same thing.
(Just to clarify, software can still be coyrighted. I was reffering to patent and criminal type restrictions.)
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
U.S support and trade when we need it
You mean, like when the US pulled steel tariffs on you ? Like when they scrapped the UK-backed landmine treaty ? Like recently when they publicly exposed BAe Systems' bribery practice in the Czek Republic ? Like in Suez, in Granada ? Like when they themselves killed the majority of UK casualties in Iraq that were not in accidents ?