From phm@a2e.de Tue, 1 Aug 2000 21:10:10 +0200 (CEST)
Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 21:10:10 +0200 (CEST)
From: PILCH Hartmut phm@a2e.de
Subject: [Patents] DeCSS, source code and software patents

>        What does all of this have to do with swpatents? Well my
> impression is that patents are precisely a way of letting the
> knowledge being disseminated, while a monopoly on *devices* is
> allowed. 

This is precisely where written European patent law (EPC 52) places the
boundary:  patent rights can not be claimed against informational objects
but only for inventions that imply more than an informational object in
order to be realised.

This distinction is also formulated in our petition text.  By speaking
about the "dissemination of computer programs", we imply that computer
programs are information that is "disseminated" and not devices that are
"distributed".

The border is not source code and object code, but between information
and matter, soft and hard, logics and physics.

Unfortunately, this distinction isn't self-evident at the level of basic
instinct, thus allowing patent lawyers to successfully feign
dumbness.  But at least the distinction between information and
non-information is clearer and more intuitive than that between source and
object code.  Another reason to leave it there.

-phm
 





