From phm@a2e.de Sat, 21 Aug 1999 17:02:06 +0200 (CEST)
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 17:02:06 +0200 (CEST)
From: PILCH Hartmut phm@a2e.de
Subject: [Patents] Re: Patents digest, Vol 1 #49 - 1 msg

On Sat, 21 Aug 1999 patents-admin@liberte.aful.org wrote:

> >     Now, this software technology is licences and is distributed
> > in the form of a computer program only. This is because, although
> > key parts of the software are patented, in order to protect the
> > patents,  and to reduce the risk of piracy, the company does not
> > distribute the source code.
> 
> Sorry, I don't get it. We've got the same situation today. You buy
> (commercial) database packages or libraries without source code and if 
> you get a crappy product you can either fold or find something else 
> (or complain and then fold ;-( ). 
> This is a disadvantage of commercial software when compared to open 
> software but has nothing to do with patented software versus non-patented
> software. 

Wrong. The patent prevents people from implementing the algorithms
independently.  So if the vendor chooses to implements it only as part of
one poorly designed database system that runs only on one poorly designed
OS, then you have to put up with this poor design or else "invest 130 man
years to invent an alternative algorithm" as Nick put it in the example.

The withholding of source code in this example is confusing.  As I
understand it, it is only an extra level of harrassment that keeps the
customer from improving the product for his own inhouse work.  If the
program came with open source, he might try to port it to a better
designed OS and remove some of the nastiest limitations.  Without the
source code, he will have to write a new program from scratch, and he will
have to keep this project secret, because he will be infringing on a
patent.  

So software patents, according to current practise, encourage secrecy and
make openness dangerous.  Even for a patent owner, there are good reasons
to keep his implementation secret.  Secrecy strengthens his monopoly on
the technology and prevents people from working around it.  As long as the
implementation is secret, people will have to bargain with the patentee so
that he may agree to remove their pains.

Software patents work to exactly the opposite ends of normal patents: to
promote secrecy in technology.

-phm





