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Software Patents In The European Union Continued...
Christopher Reimer writes "O'Reilly Policy DevCenter has a nice overview concerning the legalizing software patents in the European Union. From the article: 'The Computer Implemented Inventions Directive (CIID), which seeks to clarify the issue, is still being fought over in the EU and may or may not result in legalizing them. For small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and in particular, free software projects, there is much to lose.'"
Yes, we really do want to get rid of software patents. The parent /. post is IMHO absolutely correct. I would actually take it one step further, however.
A parallel can be drawn between software "patents" and "religion", in the following manner:
(1) PRO software patent ~~ "Creationism"
Every business process ("click?") and every algorithm ("formula?") was created in a vacuum,
by the inspired touch of the hand of God. And since God isn't in business, the programmer/corporation has every right to protect this "Inspired Property" from God, with a patent.
(2) CON software patent ~~ "Evolution"
Every business process and every algorithm was created from 250,000 years worth of social and mental development, including spoken and written language. Collaboration and the inspiration to make incremental improvements, in life as well as business, has formed what and who we are today. This includes business processes, languages, algorithms and mathematical formulas, and our software. As such, any programmer/corporation cannot lay claim to any incrimental improvement without recognising, acknowledging, and assigning a portion of credit to every person who came before. Therefore, software patents are a mythical invention of those who would steal from society in order to unfairly profit, with the connivance of corrupt government. (Actually, this same argument can also be applied to most hardware patents as well...)
Of course, the USA has already fully embraced software patents, just as the regime in power has also been forcing "creationist" religion on its population. At the same time that this "creationist" pigopolist world view has taken hold in the USA, the individual rights of its citizens and the rights of that society as a democracy have fallen away in favor of "corporatism", aka Corporate National Socialism.
Do the MEPs of the EU truly believe that adopting "corporatism" themselves will somehow protect them from the tenticles of "corporatism" branching out across the Atlantic Ocean like a metastasizing cancer? Apparently, some do.