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Software as speech?

You wrote:
The Court has no authority over parties not before it. Good luck should that same court issue an order to all users of Linux.

A court might not issue an order to all users of Linux, but it can issue an order to the sellers/controllers of Linux.
Courts are used to having a response to their orders.


And I don't know that it's possible to patent speech, but software can be patented.
Here's a quote from a January 2004 BBC interview with Bruce Perens, who understands the encroaching threat of legal proceedings very well:


The biggest challenge that will face us after that is software patenting. Software patents that are being accepted are not necessarily inventions, their definitions are overbroad. And you can never finish a patent search. The definitions are so broad, you can't ever be sure a company would or would not assert their patent on what you are doing.

You have to consider engineers today spend their entire careers combining other people's intellectual property. And every small and medium sized enterprise is at risk regarding software patenting. That is a problem in Europe, because representatives to the European Parliament are pushing very hard for software patenting that would indeed shut out all small and medium businesses from the software development business, not just open source.

We're looking at a future where only the very largest companies will be able to implement software, and it will technically be illegal for other people to do so. That's a very, very bad situation developing. We must do something so that there is reason for people to innovate, there is reason for people to invent, but that companies can execute without this constant fear that we will be sued into the ground regarding software patenting.

Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 05/24/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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