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Difference between revisions of "Why abolish software patents"

(The list: The fill feature of spreadsheets is patented and not available in builds of OpenOffice.org for Fedora (and Red Hat?))
(The list: Working with DVD, even unencrypted, is impossible since the codecs are patented.)
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* Since the only requirement to develop software is a commodity computer, which is very cheap, software should not be patentable just as authoring a book that only requires paper and a pen, which are very cheap, is not patentable.
 
* Since the only requirement to develop software is a commodity computer, which is very cheap, software should not be patentable just as authoring a book that only requires paper and a pen, which are very cheap, is not patentable.
 
* The now obvious "auto-filling" feature of spreadsheets is patented and not available in builds of free software office software for certain distributions.
 
* The now obvious "auto-filling" feature of spreadsheets is patented and not available in builds of free software office software for certain distributions.
 +
* Working with unencrypted (no copyright protection) DVDs is not possible without violating patented codecs.
  
 
==Existing articles==
 
==Existing articles==

Revision as of 20:52, 4 August 2009

This is a rough article to make a long list of all the arguments against software patents. This will be used as a base for drafting work in the coming weeks and months as well as in the upcoming Bilski case and maybe the New Zealand legislative proposal, and other Current opportunities and dangers.

The list

  • After 20 years, the disclosed ideas are almost all useless
  • SMEs and individuals can't afford to do patent searches
  • SMEs and individuals can't afford to defend themselves
  • When a standard it patented, the only way to avoid the patent is to avoid the standard
  • Since the logic (idea) of software can be reduced to mathematical formula (idea) with Church-Turing Thesis, and because mathematical formula (idea) is not patentable, software should not be patentable as well.
  • Since the only requirement to develop software is a commodity computer, which is very cheap, software should not be patentable just as authoring a book that only requires paper and a pen, which are very cheap, is not patentable.
  • The now obvious "auto-filling" feature of spreadsheets is patented and not available in builds of free software office software for certain distributions.
  • Working with unencrypted (no copyright protection) DVDs is not possible without violating patented codecs.

Existing articles

Bibliography