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Talk:Why abolish software patents

Revision as of 10:51, 7 August 2009 by Steelpillow (talk | contribs) (reply)

Patent thickets

What about the fact that nobody will be able to develop software, if they got a patent to "protect" their idea, at all because of the thousands of patents owned by large companies (such as IBM or Microsoft) which used in that software if they tried to deny them?--94.98.37.115 04:43, 5 August 2009 (EDT)

Yup, sounds worth adding. Ciaran 08:40, 5 August 2009 (EDT)

Burden of proof

I see my addition to the list has been edited. The excision of the majority of the harsh but entirely fair¹ and accurate contextual latter half of the first sentence rather guts it IMO. Okay - it's your list - but “historical status quo” is poor English. Similarly, the “properly” in the second sentence has been replaced with “morally”, reducing the strength of what was the moral *and* material anti-fallacy² core of the argument by half (at least). The added “For example...” question is almost a good _counterexample_ of the kind of question that the argument preceding it suggests should be asked. It positively invites an anecdote fight!

  • ¹ Generously so given what the Pat. Est. has been getting up to since before the CII Directive.
  • ² Shifting the burden of proof has been a (if not the) major achievement of the pro-swpatters.

(above comment unsigned)

Well, I edited it but I am not any official part of ESP Wiki, so blame me not them. Here is your original version:
* Arguments /against/ software patents really shouldn't even be necessary and the anti-software patent side should not allow itself to be forced into a defensive position simply because an insidious economic quackery has dominated patent system policy and practise historically. The burden of proof properly rests entirely upon the shoulders of software patent defenders and advocates: the only acceptable justification for the (often appalling) negative ethical and economic consequences of patent eligibility for software would be evidence demonstrating that it substantially increases technological progress and economic and social welfare despite the harm it does.
And here is mine:
* Arguments /against/ software patents really shouldn't even be necessary and the anti-software patent side should not allow itself to be forced into a defensive position simply because of the historical status quo. The burden of proof morally rests upon the shoulders of software patent defenders and advocates. The only acceptable justification for the negative ethical and economic consequences of patent eligibility for software would be hard evidence demonstrating that it substantially increases technological progress and economic and social welfare despite the harm it does. For example, given equal starting points, does an author who fails to patent their software suffer economic hardship, while an author who does patent their software fares better?
I tried to tone down the most colorful language because the appearance of ranting tends to be counter-productive, no matter how true and deep the underlying situation may be. Also, I try not to use many words where one will do. I changed "properly" with "morally" basically to achieve what you complain about - I do not think that material considerations mean a darn thing without the morality to back them up, i.e. it is the morality that makes material aspects matter here. As for my example, well if this cannot be answered effectively then what are we all doing here?. Having said all that, I won't stand in your way if you edit/revert as you see fit - I'll let the site admins do that ;-/ steelpillow 10:51, 7 August 2009 (EDT)