On Monday 10 Aug 2009, Vickram Crishna wrote: > [snip] > I understand this to mean that FSF is not against the idea of > software patents per se, only against encumbered or entailed > software. Do Fosscommers feel otherwise, generally speaking?
AFAIK FSF is opposed to both copyrights and patents (in any form) in principle. The GPL was an attempt to subvert the copyright regime from inside -- since you can't easily change the rules, play the game by the rules and change the game itself, hence copyleft. The GPL will have fulfilled its function and become irrelevant the day there is no more copyright. A similar reasoning applies to the GPLv3 take on software patents -- since some backward countries have software patents and they show no signs of going away, the GPLv3 plays the game by the rules to nullify the effect of software patents, just as the GPL did with copyright. Again, the relevant clauses of the GPLv3 are redundant in domains where software patents do not apply, and will be meaningless when software patents are globally abolished. I'm sure our friends from the FSF would be able to expand on this and correct any flaws in my understanding. > In the particular instance of software patents, I feel that patenting > is not the best means to promote software freedom, even though a > century or more of patent use has resulted in an ecosystem to support > it. As an earlier post mentioned, expressing an idea for the first > time is itself a de facto declaration of right of discovery. The > 'ecosystem' of patents has moved towards (a trend, not an absolute > fact) corporate/third party ownership of patents, which is rarely in > the best interests of either the discoverer or the rest of us. While the benefits of any kind of patents are dubious anyway, this is specially so for software patents for a number of reasons. Instead of enumerating them here, have a look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent_debate#Arguments_against_patentability which highlights the major arguments against software patents. A slightly longer list of ideas (with further reading) is at: http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Arguments Regards, -- Raj -- Raj Mathur [email protected] http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance & Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves _______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
