Software Patents - a nasty racket designed to keep lawyers in work
A couple of years ago lobbyists pressurised the EU to open the door to software patents being introduced via the European Patent Office and they were sent packing
Active individuals and small business alliances vigorously opposed them because software patents are a direct attack on everyone and European software developers are now asking one question: why are large American software companies so interested in pressurising Europe to adopt a system which has proven to be totally flawed on one hand and completely dangerous on the other in the very country where software patents were first introduced - the US. In other words why are they not minding their own business?
It just so happens that Europe is where all the best Free Software is created and there is a strong sense of freedom, community and co-operation among European software developers. In Europe we are more inclined to question why powerful corporations would wish to put us in straight jackets and dictate our every move. Irish politicians are not known for standing up to Uncle Sam on points of principle however and most of them would pawn their granny for few pounds. We ordinary mortals are left to do the fighting and the fight begins with educating our politicians that our democratic freedoms are not for sale. At any price
Patents were useful to inventors during the industrial revolution because it gave them a 20 year head start over those who wished to copy their inventions. That is fair enough because an inventor is entitled to make a living from an invention especially if someone richer could just set up shop and begin producing knock off's of the original idea. That would be immoral
Someone bigger can also offer to pay a license fee for use of the invention during the 20 year period. The inventor makes money and the licensee mass produces the product ensuring that society gets to benefit from the original invention. No harm is done and everyone benefits, at least in the theory. One major problem however is that in the software industry 20 years is more like 20 light years and ideas can become obsolete very quickly
If you are the garden shed type of inventor designing a mechanical device then seeking a patent is a smart idea because mechanical parts are very easily copied and mass produced by large companies with the resources to produce the device at a much lower cost than you could. More importantly, in 20 years time there is still likely to be strong demand for a good mechanical product but software products by their nature have a very short life cycle
Computer Software consists merely of numbers - millions of one's and zero's - and a computer can be programmed by anyone and resources are not an issue. But numbers can't be patented. Or can they?
Software patents have already been granted for algorithms and techniques used in software development. Algorithms are simply chunks of code comprising maybe several hundred individual computer instructions executed in a sequence to allow a software application to perform a particular computing task in a particular way. There is nothing original or clever about them and the same chunks of code get modified and reused over and over again in different software development projects. In Science this is known as standing on the shoulders of giants because you are making use of existing knowledge and pushing it to the limits of understanding. This is how a civilised society evolves and improves after all
This philosophy of creating, modifying and reusing code is what they preach to students of computer programming in colleges and universities around the world because reusing code is meant to make a programmer's life easier by making him or her more efficient
Now we learn that we could sweat for a year creating some great new software application only to worry that someone could come along one day claiming that you had stolen their idea and threaten to sue you. It would be especially galling if you were genuinely in total ignorance of any wrong doing on your part only to later be served with legal papers and demands for compensation from some lawyer in a sharp suit and braces. That is how patent law is designed to operate and it helps to ensure that many small business people, software developers especially, have sleepless nights
A lot of computer books use the tagline 'Create, Modify and Reuse' to get the attention of programmers who browse the computer section in their local bookstores. All programmers know what this slogan means because it was the very spirit of Create, Modify and Reuse which made the software industry what is today and programmers have always shared and contributed code to technical journals, open source projects and internet forums
Programmers usually jump at the chance to get a bit of kudos from others because it gives them a chance to prove that they are not just smart but also sociable individuals who like to be seen to be helpful to fellow coders. It is nice to be nice but the patent trolls are a threat to this very culture
Information is shared freely between programmers and all is well until one day a patent troll goes to a judge, gets granted a patent in secret, and the world's programmers eventually learn that in future they can't use algorithm X or technique Y unless they cut a deal with the patent holder. If they have already used X or Y in a previous project then will live in fear knowing that one day soon they could be sued and lose their business or even their sanity
This is not only unfair but it is a carefully designed trap which is deliberately used to bully programmers who come up with innovative ideas only to find out that they have been served with remuneration demands from the patent troll. If the patent trolls are not compensated then they don't care whether new product ideas, which could have proved to be useful to society, are buried along with the dreams of it's enthusiastic but ultimately naive and doomed creator
Software development could grind to a halt, or only be seriously practised by those with sufficient funds to keep a patent lawyer permanently on their books if this mean spirited practice is allowed to take root in Europe. The patent office is not supposed to grant patents on software ideas but that is what has been happening and it will get worse
It was Ireland, led by commissioner Charlie McCreevy who were the most vociferous supporters of European patent reform and the story becomes all the more illuminating when you learn that Microsoft was the main sponsor of Ireland's term as holders of the EU presidency. Interesting
Microsoft rose to fame because their software creations were protected by the law of copyright. If Microsoft can grow to become the most powerful and profitable software corporation on the planet thanks to the protection already offered to their products through copyright law then why on earth would they also want to support software patents? What is the point of this extra protection, and, most of importantly of all, who would benefit the most from it?
Patents have so far proved to be catastrophic for business and innovation in software development because the system deliberately slows down this fast paced industry and even the US legal system itself has acknowledged that it may have gone too far when it first set the precedent back in the 1990s when it granted the first patents for computer software ideas
The US judicial system shot itself in the foot by starting a precedent that allowed the very concept of software patents to enter the mass consciousness and as a result we have on our doorsteps an even meatier carcase from which our notorious legal eagles will feast and gain even more professional fees for doing absolutely nothing more than having a trained monkey's ability to interpret and decipher what some indecipherable law means. No wonder they create laws that are unintelligible to the layperson - they get paid hundred of Euros per hour just for decoding the message. Nice work indeed if you know how to create it!
Patents and Computer Software are directly incompatible if only because the law moves at a snails pace while the software industry is always in a perpetual state of motion. Like night and day they are at opposite ends of the spectrum and never the twain should meet
Patent lawyers will become indispensable to anyone who is seriously trying to develop software applications whether they be commercial or open source in nature. Each time you come up with a new idea regarding the direction in which you wish to take your business you will need to consult a patent lawyer and this is where the insanity of the patent system could become the bane of your life
Software Patents have created a new business model that has given birth to companies who do nothing but trawl the internet and the patent offices looking for unsuspecting victims from whom they can later extort money. Fortunately they have not been very successful in their attempts and most of their efforts bear no fruit which I am sure most fair minded people would agree is a form of poetic justice. The reason they are unsuccessful is because they have created a mess that is so impossible to interpret that they themselves don't even understand it. I thought that it was only bankers who were capable of such stupidity
There are three types of people in this economy. First there is the unemployed and disenfranchised and there are those who do an honest days work if they are lucky and have a job. Then there are the professional fee takers who don't do anything whatsoever to benefit society and yet who make the most serious money. Professional fee takers are notorious for being liars and that is why Ireland is drowning in tribunals that are costing the tax payer millions every year. The law is the only profession that is doing well and this is because these guys have created a system which operates on language that is so clear that for ordinary mortals like yourself and me it might as well have been written in Martian for all it matters. Yet it matters a lot because every day this game makes and breaks people's dreams
If Ireland was to embrace more free software in education and public administration it would reduce the amount of money paid out for software licenses to American corporations who take their profits off shore and only pay into the Irish tax system what they can get away with. It would also force patent trolls to get a real job earning honest money and stop them from behaving like vultures. It could be done but the political nous is simply not there
Every college in Ireland is heavily influenced by Microsoft and you don't need to be paranoid to put two and two together and come to the conclusion that something smelly is going on when most of the software we use in public institutions is from large corporations such as Microsoft and Adobe Systems. It is known that if you attempt to promote free software in Irish institutions that you will be more or less told to keep your mouth shut and just get on with the job. Of course I am not for one split second implying that some people have a sideline in accepting favours from large corporations because this is Ireland after all we know that all Irishmen and women are as straight as a pin and absolutely unimpeachable in matters relating to pubic finances
Naturally the politicians don't actually say they intend to introduce software patents because they know that almost everyone is opposed to the idea. Every elected representative will tell you that they are against software patents to fool you into thinking that they are on your side but the fact of the matter is that they don't even remotely understand what software patents are or how dangerous they can be. Guess what? Most politicians are either lawyers themselves or have very close ties with that profession
Most people don't care about the consequences of software patents and will be happy to continue supporting a legislative system that is undemocratic and which is designed by lawyers, for the benefit of lawyers and which has the means to ensure that the predatory and anti-social practice of software patenting will be adopted across the EU. As I implied earlier all they need to do is plant the very seeds of an idea and no matter how odious it may be it will gain currency just because it came dribbling down from some supposedly higher power. They usually explain their motives by stating that it is for our own good. After all in this day and age 'entrapment' means 'freedom' and 'fear' means 'security'
In a small economy such as Ireland we need to give innovative individuals and small business all the free reign they can get if they are to innovate and provide employment for many of our unemployed graduates. Unfortunately an enemy within is determined to gain even more control over the software industry by crippling software developers and preventing them from doing what all good developers do best - make great software
In times of dire recession we need imaginative and creative minds in all walks of life to push the envelope and offer up new ideas which can help us learn from past mistakes and find better ways of doing things with ever decreasing resources. In software development saved time and increased efficiency are the holy grail to which all project managers and serious developers aspire to but if the EU ever allows software patents to take root here it could sound the death knell for the European software industry and leave it open to domination by large US based predators
Patents and intellectual property claims applied to software ideas are an extortion racket conceived of by a cartel of wealthy and powerful interests to crush innovation and competition from their weaker competitors and free-thinkers. Cartels by their nature and raison de etre are all anti-capitalist because large corporations pool their resources together and form patent sharing clubs which are the preserve of the obscenely wealthy and where the door is kept firmly shut as far as the small businessman is concerned
Even more disturbing is the idea that patent legislation and the running of the European Patent Office will be out of the hands of elected individuals and instead be placed in the hands of a few top judges and chosen placemen at the European Patent Office. I smell a rat here and would suggest that such a system is open to gross abuse through corruption, bribery, blackmail and all kinds of foul smelling skullduggery
Software patents are malicious because they are against free software and ultimately our freedoms as individuals. If used to stamp out free software, patents will give complete control of our computers and the software we use to corporations and legal eagles. Low competition leads to higher prices and inferior products and we don't need David McWilliams to tell us that because even a leaving cert economics student knows the drill
The only solution is to insist on Free Software which is free in every sense of the word and spend our time creating and not consulting with patent lawyers. If you use proprietary software you will never be free because someone else will always be dictating what you can and can't do with that software. The real question is do you really care about freedom?
Links
Ciaran O'Riordan - Irish Anti Software Patent Activist
End Software Patents - Fighting against a fast-growing bureaucracy
Software patents are useless - A developer's perspective
Richard Stallman - Fighting Software Patents - Singly and Together
