Free software
Free software is software which can be used, copied, redistributed, and whose source code can be viewed, modified, and also redistributed. See also:
"Free software" is not a subtopic of software patents. Development and distribution of all types of software carry the risk of patent infringement. The reason these two topics often appear together is that, firstly, the free software community is very active and vocal in campaigning against software patents, and secondly, software patents threaten a general freedom that free software users value: the freedom to participate in software development.
[Free software stands out in important ways as covered in the Discussion page under the section Free_Software_has_important_differences_as_concerns_arguments. Some can make a clearer case that free software should not be constrained by patents when we look at promote the progress or free speech concerns.]
The term open source is a near-synonym. Patents affect the freedom that users and developers have when dealing with software. Patents don't affect "openness", so ESP Wiki should use the term "free software".
Contents
Why free software groups should be involved
The free software movement says that everyone should be allowed to modify and redistribute the software they use. Software patents interfere with this because they can add legal risks and costs to software development and distribution.
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Patent promises in 2005
IBM promised, for 500 of its patents, not to use them against free software.[1]
Sun[2] and Nokia[3] subsequently made promises that were so narrow in scope, they were qualified as "empty" and "next to nothing", respectively, by Richard Stallman.[4]
Could free software get a special exception from the patent system?
This proposal has been raised many times, but has not been pursued by any major campaign organisation (for example: ESP, FFII, FSF, and FSFE).
Some reasons why free software organisations do not pursue this idea:
- It strongly implies that software is patentable
- It requires a legal definition of "free software"
- It cuts that organisation off from the main campaigns against software patents
Some additional reasons why organisations which are agnostic to software freedom do not pursue this (as, for example, a stepping stone):
- It would leave the majority of the economic harms of patents
- There are no well developed proposals
- It's more work because it requires convincing legislators of two things:
- free software is special
- special software should be exempt from the patent system
Related pages on ESP Wiki
- Free software distributors paying patent tax
- Free software projects harmed by software patents
- Fake representatives of free software
- Harm to standards (examples include OpenGL 3, MPEG video formats, and GIF)
- Patent clauses in software licences
- passive threats - a common way that free software is "targeted"
- Patent promises - many of which are somewhat focussed on free software
- Novell-Microsoft patent deals
- Richard Stallman
- Free Software Foundation
- Breaks software distribution methods
External links
- The Free Software Definition, gnu.org
- Software patents and free software, Wikipedia
- CALIU: Patents Threathen Free Software
- Operating systems will be developed by lawyers not programmers, 2006, FTI South Africa
- Microsoft seeks $50 per copy of Xandros GNU/Linux, 15 June 2009 (plus itWire coverage)
- "Effects of Software Patents on Free/Open Source/User Innovation", slides / video (works with Gnash)
- FSF's amicus brief for the 2009 Supreme Court case, contains details of how free software is important and how it's affected
- Patents - Why Free/Open Source Software Might Have Less to Fear than Non-Free Software, September 2004, by Dan Ravicher
- (See also: Harm with neither litigation nor threats)
- A 2004 patent deal regarding StarOffice/OpenOffice.org, signed with Sun Microsystems
- 2010-03-09: Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal, by Johnathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems about patent threats from Apple and from Microsoft regarding OpenOffice.org
- Patents as a threat to Free and Open Source Software, April 2010, by Florian Mueller
- Considerations For FLOSS Hackers About Oracle vs. Google, 16 Aug 2010, by Bradley Kuhn
