End Software Patents Project Comes Out Swinging

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."

Comments

Re:FSF and RMS

[evilviper]

you have to agree that getting rid of software patents would benefit everyone, globally in the software industry.

No, actually you have to disagree.

Everyone wants to abolish software patents, so they can use the research that went into them without paying, but NOBODY wants to propose ANY alternatives for financial compensation to those who develop such technology. I guess it's going to be up to the magical fairies to develop MPEG-5, 802.11z, et al. for us.

Eliminating software patents will quickly give a boost to free and open source software, and shortly thereafter thrust us all into a dystopian future, where there are NO open standards, very little technological development, and endless new incompatible and proprietary video/audio codecs, wired/wireless communications methods, internet protocols, and hardware designs.

I can't wait for it to happen in the states as I predict it will also trigger the fall in the few countries that also allow software patents.

Indeed it will. When the last large country follow's Europe's lead and jumps at the prisoner's dilemma (of patents) for their own benefit, the remaining few will not possibly be enough to prop up the system.