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End Software Patents Project Comes Out Swinging

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the amicus-populorum dept.

Linux.com is reporting that the End Software Patents project is launching several new initiatives to help drive support for their cause. Among the new methods are a web site, a report on the state of patents in the US, and a scholarship contest promising to award $10,000 "for the best paper on the effects of the patentability of software and business methods under US law." "The project is being launched with initial funding of a quarter million dollars, supplied primarily by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). Under the directorship of Ben Klemens, a long-time advocate of software patent abolition best-known for the book Math You Can't Use: Patents, Copyright, and Software, the project is being supported by the FSF, the Public Patent Foundation, and the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC). One of ESP's goals is to enlist support from academics, software developers, legal experts, and business executives. Its initial supporters show that the project is already well on its way to building such a coalition."

4 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Apparently there is.... by bihoy · · Score: 4, Informative

    https://endsoftpatents.org/donate

  2. Re:Defining software patents by Timothy+Brownawell · · Score: 3, Informative

    But processes and recepies are software, they're just written for people and organizations instead of for computers.

  3. Re:FSF and RMS by dgatwood · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, look at it this way. We had lots of research going on in computer software, and then patents happened in the 80s, and since then, the research spending has basically dried up and real innovation (as opposed to mere incremental improvement) has dramatically slowed. Granted, we don't have a control group, so we can't definitively say that the slowdown was caused by patents, but we have seen enough examples of innovation being hampered by patents and enough research driven predominantly by the desire to get more patents instead of being driven by a desire to improve the state of the art that we can pretty clearly conclude that patents have a deleterious effect. The only thing that isn't clear is the extent to which this is the case, IMHO.

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  4. Re:So, the basic argument against SW patents is... by asuffield · · Score: 3, Informative

    So instead of fixing the problem, we should all throw out the baby with the bathwater, eliminating patents all together, and condemning the many companies who have legitimate reasons and needs for patents.


    The baby is a baby cobra, so yes, we should throw it out.

    Having no software patents at all would still be a massive improvement over what we currently have. And we don't know how to build a better system.