SFLC Tells SCOTUS, "Software Patents Are Unjust"

H4x0r Jim Duggan writes to inform us that the day after Red Hat advised SCOTUS that software should not be patentable, the Software Freedom Law Center filed its amicus brief in the Bilski case. "In this closely-watched case, the Supreme Court will decide whether the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was correct in restricting patentable processes to those 'tied to a particular machine or apparatus,' or which 'transform[s] a particular article into a different state or thing,' a conclusion which if fully implemented could bring to an end the widespread patenting of computer programs. ... This case gives the Supreme Court a chance to reaffirm what its past cases have held for more than a century: that no patent law consistent with the US Constitution can permit the monopolization of abstract ideas." Groklaw is running the usual cogent gloss with the full text of the SFLC's brief.

Comments

Re:Good luck with that

[benjamindees]

But they are probably right. It would result in a loss of jobs, almost without question. The problem is not the loss of jobs or the work performed by those who hold them. Greenspan's poor acting aside, no one actually believes any of the tripe recited by politicians about the American worker being "productive" or the US economy being "strong" or that the vast majority of workers couldn't be replaced with simple machines or tiny perl scripts at the drop of a hat. The problem is not loss of jobs. The problem is the loss of societal function that those jobs serve.

The problem is that the "powers that be" think that work is a virtue in and of itself and that subsidizing bullshit make-work "jobs" creates a beneficial societal structure and an effective method of inter-generational wealth transfer.

It is widely believed that jobs prevent criminals from committing crimes, prevent wives from cheating on their husbands, promote health and well-being, provide beneficial social activities, and instill good moral values, even aside from sometimes producing goods of economic value. Some of this may be true. Most of it is bullshit.

I would venture to guess that a large percentage of the US economy is inextricably linked to the broken-window fallacy writ large in the form of the full employment mandate of the federal reserve. Decades of economic pressure has selected for Americans who are completely dependent upon jobs, welfare, student loans or other hand-outs provided by a government and banking system predicated upon force and fraud.

The average American is expected to have children, work full-time for a corporation earning close to the median regional salary, have several credit cards and spend every dime she earns. And if you don't fall into this category, your well-being will be utterly crushed by the economic power of the federal government to seize your property, tax you into oblivion, subsidize your worthless neighbors, draft you into bullshit wars or mandatory "volunteerism", devalue your savings, destroy your health, and distort and regulate markets as large as 60% of the mortgages in the US and as small as a single bushel of corn grown and consumed by a single farmer.

Re:Good luck with that

[DarkOx]

no one actually believes any of the tripe recited by politicians about the American worker being "productive" or the US economy being "strong" or that the vast majority of workers couldn't be replaced with simple machines or tiny perl scripts at the drop of a hat.

I am not so sure of that. Some people believe or at least choose to accept the lie. Otherwise how do you explain all those sovereign wealth funds the world over continuing to buy T-bills, even when rates and discounts are relatively low to what you and I might view as the risk?

Sure lots of it has to do with necessity; we are into them so deep they don't see any way to let us get out without getting in deeper. Ultimately though they system is predicated on fraud and force as you say. Trouble with fraud is even the best scheme always comes apart in the end, sooner or later a call that can't be covered will get made, or something to damning to be ignored will leak. Last I checked we have only had moderate success with that force thing as of late, at least where foreign powers are concerned. I don't think anyone will move against us directly but as soon as a few decided they can afford the losses; our voice in world policy and interests will be virtually ignored, because we can't do anything about it.

The economy is grand joke and the recovery only exists if you don't know what the word.

Re:Good luck with that

[benjamindees]

Perhaps you should have used some of your free education to take an economics course, so that you might understand the effects of minimum wage, subsidies and other price controls.

Or, hell, take an English class for god's sake, so that you know what a run-on sentence is.

Anyone who believes in robbing from those capable of benefiting from higher education in order to fill schools and businesses with a bunch of worthless drooling morons in the name of progress deserves to be dispatched to the great socialist utopia in the sky. "I do believe" you're a wanker idiot whose socialist tripe is the reason we kicked your pasty, boot-kissing, state-subsidized asses back across the pond two hundred years ago.