Euro polls: Pact to protect free software? Opinions

croo

Hindsight is great like that. You'd find it hard to get a patent on light-bulbs these days, too.

One point that is, perhaps, not well known is that even though software patents are not legal in Europe, the European Patent Office has been awarding Software Patents! If patents on software are made legal, overnight just about everything done by software today will require royalties be paid. For an idea of what kind of things have already been awarded patent in Europe checkout the right-hand column of http://stopsoftwarepatents.eu/211000297544/

People may argue that these can be challenged in court, but this is typically a very expensive process. Effectively money will be the deciding factor in a companies ability to protect their own IP or challange anothers.

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croo wrote: »

One point that is, perhaps, not well known is that even though software patents are not legal in Europe, the European Patent Office has been awarding Software Patents! If patents on software are made legal, overnight just about everything done by software today will require royalties be paid. For an idea of what kind of things have already been awarded patent in Europe checkout the right-hand column of http://stopsoftwarepatents.eu/211000297544/

People may argue that these can be challenged in court, but this is typically a very expensive process. Effectively money will be the deciding factor in a companies ability to protect their own IP or challange anothers.

All very well, but the European Patent Office is not an EU institution and, hence, the "Euro Polls" (i.e. EP elections) mentioned in thread title has nothing to do with it. Also, since the EPO has already issued patents on software, there is probably a legal basis under the European Patent Convention, for them having done so.

croo

The EPO may not be an EU institution but the EU will decide if the software patents issued by it may be enforced or not so it is very relevant to the up coming elections. We only very narrowly escaped software patents the last time the commission tried to introduce them, mostly because our representatives at the European Parliament were ill informed.

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croo wrote: »

The EPO may not be an EU institution but the EU will decide if the software patents issued by it may be enforced or not so it is very relevant to the up coming elections. We only very narrowly escaped software patents the last time the commission tried to introduce them, mostly because our representatives at the European Parliament were ill informed.

Well, maybe I am missing the point but:

Most, if not all, EU states are signatories to the European Patent Convention,
The EPO already issues software patents,
Hence, EPO issued software patents are presumably already legally accepted and enforcable in all EU states.

So, why does it matter if the EU as a whole decides to formally recognise EPO issued patents if the individual member states recognise them already?

Please enlighten me!

croo

Hence, EPO issued software patents are presumably already legally accepted and enforcable in all EU states.

Actually, no they aren't - this is the point. But, the EPO can make money processing Software Patents so it does so even though they are not enforceable (the enforceability is actually a country by country decision but most don't recognise software patents and if they do only in a very limited scenario). Companies have acquired patents in the hope that will become enforceable in which case they will have themselves a little royalties "cash cow" .. as I said look at the link to see some of the very basic software processes for which EPO patents are currently awarded.

corkie

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Open source is everywhere on the Internet

It’s fascinating how pervasive these products actually are if you think about it. If you use the Internet at all, you will most likely run into all of these products every single day even if you’re not always aware of it. A majority of the websites you visit will use the Apache web server, your DNS lookups will be served by BIND servers, if you visit blogs at least some of them will run Wordpress, both BSD and Linux are common operating systems for servers on the Internet, not to mention that MySQL is used by a huge amount of websites and all Wordpress blogs. And there’s a good chance that you are now reading this in a Firefox web browser.

Quote from here :-> The 8 most successful open source products ever

There is more Open Source Platforms as well, where the very app's or programs you use on a daily basis, could have been built on top of these platforms: -

InfoWorld - "Leeches" -- that's how Dave Rosenberg, co-founder and former CEO of MuleSource, and now part of the founding team of RiverMuse, refers to companies that use open source technology but don't give back to the open source community. Companies like Southwest Airlines, with a reservation system largely powered by MuleSource. Companies like Cisco's Linksys subsidiary, whose routers rely on Linux. Companies like Amazon.com, whose Elastic Cloud Computing (EC2) service depends on Eclipse Foundation's open source offerings

Quote from here :-> The fight over open source 'leeches'

Regards,
John.

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croo wrote: »

Actually, no they aren't - this is the point. But, the EPO can make money processing Software Patents so it does so even though they are not enforceable (the enforceability is actually a country by country decision but most don't recognise software patents and if they do only in a very limited scenario).

Okay, thanks for the clarification. I have to say my opinion of the usefulness of a patent from the EPO has just nose-dived (irrespective of what the patents were granted to cover).

A Primal Nut

corkie wrote: »

I know I brought it up and due to "Confidential Clause", with my ex-employer. I (can not/ will not) discuss, the mater of how my employment ended. I am still in good terms, I believe with the same and have many friends/collogues still employed with the Company.

Yes we are govern by rules of law, both as employee's >> and as employers << and/or as citizens of the EU. This thread is about what the these rules should be, voted by society and not by cooperation's.

Whatever corporation you work for will always be the one who defines the rules, not society. If you don't like the rules your corporation employs, find another employer.

Permabear

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oscarBravo

I would be very supportive of the idea of source code as a copyrightable work. The idea that an algorithm is a patentable invention, however, is just... wrong.

Scofflaw

oscarBravo wrote: »

I would be very supportive of the idea of source code as a copyrightable work. The idea that an algorithm is a patentable invention, however, is just... wrong.

Personally, I tend to view it as very similar to music. There is a limited vocabulary in any given language, and while anyone can produce some arrangement of 'notes', the difference between a genius and a pedestrian software author is very similar to that between composers. The idea, too, that anyone could patent a particular chord is inherently ridiculous.

cordially,
Scofflaw