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Patent Mess May Stifle Australian Software

Posted by timothy on from the specific-example-of-a-general-truth dept.

gtoomey writes "Australian Open Source lawyer Brendan Scott is claiming the USA/Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will damage all Australian software development. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald says that developers have probably built products which 'infringe' on U.S. software patents, while the FTA is forcing Australia to adopt DCMA laws."

3 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Australia? by Soko · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well, for one, Dr. Andrew Tridgell is an Aussie. Several key OSS devs are as well. A major thorn in the side of Microsoft et. al. is that when they win in the US through buying laws, someone in another country does what those in the US no longer can.

    One can see that the Closed Source MegaCorps have realised that unless they get all lawmakers, not just those in the US, on thier side OSS will march on with out missing a beat. This could be the thin edge of the wedge, as it were.

    Soko

    --
    "Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
  2. This has me worried in a major way by inflex · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm a small software development company, a one person one in fact. While I don't have any concerns (yet) about the DMCA, I do worry about patent implications.

    Given the spate of trivial patents that are granted, it's somewhat inevitable that any piece of software more complex than perhaps "Hello world" is bount to infringe on something, somewhere.

    I'm seriously considering moving my operations base overseas. NewZealand would be nice but it's a tad too close, especially since I've heard that there's plans for greater unification between Au and NZ.

    I've contacted my state and local representitives about this matter, strangely all of them see to forsee it as something which "will" happen as apposed to something that the people of Australia even have the slightest choice in. Seems to me that "democratic" governments are far from being such anymore.

    PLD.

  3. Hmm... Samba... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Aren't most of the Samba developers in Australia? If so, would this mean that MS could now go after the Samba developers for infringing on patents in SMB?

    Hmm...