[Patents] Antipatents - great idea IMHO; about libertarians and sw pats

[Krzysztof Sobolewski critto@poczta.wp.pl]

Date sent:              Sun, 3 Sep 2000 00:42:44 +0200 (CEST)
From:                   PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>
To:                     fermigier <sf@fermigier.com>
Copies to:              patents@aful.org
Subject:                Re: [Patents] 'Antipatents' suggestion discussed on 
slashdot.

> > http://slashdot.org/articles/00/09/01/2039205.shtml
> > http://voice.media.org/essays/patent.html
> > 
> > ``Antipatents are simple, a registration mechanism for your open-source
> > inventions.  ... Taking the time to document the antipatent prevents some
> > clueless corporation from making it their property.  Perhaps a handsome
> > certificate, suitable for framing, can be sent with each antipatent for a
> > modest fee.' Hargrave and Malamud also call for a formal way for the
> > community at large to shout down 'clueless patents.'" Sounds good to me.''
> 
> A new word for an old, boring concept.  Programmers are usually even
> reluctant about writing documentation.  Let alone patent-like tedious
> documentation for every shade of an idea.  And once people really do find
> ways to do that, every shade of an idea will really get patented, because
> people will find that selling these "anti-patents" to some commercially
> oriented patent-fund professionals will be more worthwhile than fighting
> the patent system.

I personally consider anti-patents a great idea; I've written about 
them few months ago, and  Pilch Harthmut has agreed with me ...
I think, that a great and large Linux community may like that idea... 
(anyway, Slashdot is one of Linux groups/magazines)... People 
who write their programs and give away them for free, not making 
use even from copyright to gain money, are not willing to gain 
money from sw patents, which are far more devillious than 
copyrights (which sometimes may be useful). Anyway, archived 
prior art is "per se" anti-patent collection... NOthing being in prior 
art might be patented ... We should just only issue the watchmen
to observe _which_ ideas somebody attempts to patent, and then - 
issue that person to tell about the prior art... And the patent is 
dead before it is born ...

Have you thought about Freenet anyway ? In the dark future, if 
sw patents prevail, we still may publish our infinging programs in 
the "channels of Freenet", being anonymous and unknown.
I think of http://freenet.sourceforge.net of course, a project started ;
by Ian Clarke ... But it is the last possibility, I hope we won't have 
to... We shall win against sw patents!


> 
> Like the old discussion about "reducing swpat lifetime to 3-5
> years".  Answer: please read TRIPS art 33.

Let's break TRIPS, let's abolish such treaties! It is really possible ...
Swiss did not join EU, because EU violates bank secrecy, and has 
demanded it from Switzerland. The Swiss people are wise ...
I'm also wise and I don't want Poland  (my homeland) in EU,
since I've heard about the high taxes that EU want to impose on 
anyone... As many other intrusions on personal and economic 
liberty...


> 
> We need a FAQ to prevent such clueless discussions.

No idea is clueless. Any simple idea may lead to new ones.
Please read, what Th. Jefferson wrote about ideas ...

     Cheers,
         Critto

PS. There was a discussion about libertarians v. sw patents. 
AFAIK, most of libertarians are against such patents; some of 
those nice people are even against IP as a whole ...
So I think that a libertarian movement may help us, for it is 
worldwide now, in more than 100 countries, and getting stronger 
and stronger ... It's a new fight: libertarians v. statists, as it was
eg. republicans v. royals in France in XVIII century, or
independence lovers v. loyalists in pre-USA America ...
Or liberales (freedom lovers) v. serviles (authoritarians, supporters 
of 'ancien regime') in Spain long ago ...

PS.1 "Die Gedanken sind frei; wer kann sie erraten ?"
      - L. Cohen ("The thoughts are free... who can guess them?")
PS.2 Stop sw pat(ho/ento)logy!!!
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            Krzysztof (Christopher) "Critto" Sobolewski
e-mail:critto@poczta.wp.pl, critto@critto.prv.pl
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