Compliance Toolkit

Story: Software patent directive adopted

Posted by: Arthur B. (Tuesday 8 March 2005, 9:39 PM)

To clueless Anonymous Programmer.

This will not help the genuine hardworking programmers because they don't have 50K lying around to aquire a software patent and they certainly don't have 500K lying around to keep the laywers of their back.

Try making a program that, per example, doesn't use one-click buttons, has help buttons or can be navigated by means of a mouse. Because software patents at that "innovative" level have already been granted.

I'm not sure how much IP you've patented in your own name but I think it won't be enough to convince, say, Microsoft to sign a mutual IP agreement with you. So as long as you promise not to use their IP they won't use your IP. Unless ofcourse you've downloaded and installed one of their security patches because then the EULA (End User License Agreement) you agreed to states that you agreed not to sue them in case they might infringe on your IP. One-way deal? Gee, didn't see that coming, I'm sure. Ofcourse, you'll always have the choice to not install the security patch.

As for the Open Source community. They gave you BIND, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Mozilla, SendMail, OpenOffice, Samba, rsync and tons more. If you want to see that killed then I'm sure you want to see the Internet killed as well.

But perhaps it is for the better. Without Open Source the big commercial companies don't have much left to copycat from so we all will be left to paying premium prices for what their own programmers can think of and their sales managers will allow to leak out into the markets.
Yes, surely that is what the great minds of the "Lisbon Act" had in mind when they spoke of the year 2010.

Can you picture future support forums? Which developer will be stupid enough to post programming examples there to help his fellow developer? Can you picture your future ISP monthly subscription price? They'll only use fully commercial priced "solutions" and guess who's getting the bill for that. Can you picture your future salary as a programmer? Without software patents backing you up all you'll be is a legal liability for your company so go find a job (along with thousands of others) at one of the few companies left that do have enough patents backing them up. Can you picture the innovation speed of future commercial programs? Without better priced alternatives "stealing" paying customers away from them why would commercial companies spend more then the absolute minimum on their R&D (Research and Development) because you will swallow anything they put in front of you and do anything for it because that's how hungry they will make you.

And no, the above won't happen next year but gradually. If anything, the greedy are not stupid.

Here's economics 101 for you: no satisfied customer will give you their house for a bit of happenies but a starving one will for no more then some leftover lunch you spit on.

Oh, and don't try to become a laywer because that job market will be flooded soon enough as well. I'm sure the world will be a better place with more laywers running around on the planet surface rather then on the bottom of an ocean. All that's left to do is to find some patent officers granting patents for certain concepts of legal practices. That'll finish off the last line of defense and turn the court rooms into a playing ground for big business completely.

Welcome to your new afterlife.