[Patents] Re: World Intellectual Property Day is April 26, 2001

[orre@nada.kth.se (Roland Orre)]

Mr Michael,
whoever you are, you are obviously not serious, espeically as you
don't dare to put your full signature under your statements.

If you are really serious, then I feel really sorrow for you and
I would wish you to keep your stupid mouth shut and work with your
software without telling any other about your opinion, as you can
not even tell us your name.

I've been a professional software developer for 20 years and I know
that the best possible software available is free. During the last
ten years I've most only used open source software for development,
because that's the only software that I really trust. Today at least
98 % of everything I do is based upon free software.

And I don't use any file formats and protocols which are not
public, because every proprietary protocol is unsafe and makes
you dependent on someone else.

During all these years I've not produced very much open source
software but those pieces I have produced are the pieces of
software that I'm most proud of and those pieces of software which
will live longest of all the software I've ever produced.

If every person in the world can produce some little piece of high
quility software which will add to the human pool of open software,
then, this adds to the good of all humanity.

The fact is that the open source software gives a potential for
much more people to become productive and do business and sell
their knowledge.

So Mr Michael, do you dare to give us your name as well.

        Roland Orre
        Professional software developer

On Thu, 26 Apr 2001, webmaster@softwarelaw.com wrote:

> Mr. Pilch,
>
> The basis of your public policy is ludicrous.
>
> I used to work in software development, and I know that the best software 
> developers do not work for free.  In the short-term, they have expenses to 
> pay for.  In the long-term, they must provide for retirement, and they 
> often have the ambition of becoming rich from their efforts.
>
> The free software is ultimately doomed to be swept away into the dustbin of 
> history, along with socialism.
>
> Michael
>
> ------Original Message------
> From: PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>
> To: "David J. Dickinson" <ddickinson@epo.org>
> Sent: April 26, 2001 10:52:04 AM GMT
> Subject: Re: World Intellectual Property Day is April 26, 2001
>
>
> On Wed, 25 Apr 2001, David J. Dickinson wrote:
>
> > Dear Patent Information User,
> >
> > April 26, 2001 will be celebrated as the first World Intellectual Property
> > Day, an opportunity to highlight the significance of creativity and
> > innovation in people's daily lives and in the betterment of society.
>
> > At their annual meetings in September 2000, WIPO member States decided
> > to designate April 26, the date on which the Convention establishing
> > WIPO entered into force in 1970, for special activities to highlight
> > the importance and practical use of intellectual property.
>
> > For more information on how this occasion will be marked by events and
> > activities around the world, either :
>
> > a)  go to the WIPO home page   http://www.wipo.int/   and click on the
> > "News" link to the story
>
> > or
>
> > b)  go directly to   http://www.wipo.int/news/en/worldip/world_ip   to ;
> > view
> > the information directly.
>
> Apparently WIPO is stepping up its myth-creating activities and becoming
> more and more sectarian.  This is well in line with the recent WIPO drive
> to write "unlimited patentability and strict limitations on patent
> quality" into international law -- we reported about the Substantive
> Patent Law Treaty.
>
> All this reminds me of the "intellectual property" celebrations of the
> French Revolution, about which Machlup narrates in his report to congress
> of 1958.  He mentions that French scholars of the time acknowledged that
> the "intellectual property" concept was a propaganda myth, designed to
> avoid less popular but more honest wordings such as "temporary monopoly"
> or "privilege".  It is this kind of sectarian propaganda that has allowed
> the patent system to run rampant and forget about its social function as
> an exception to free competition, designed to "promote the progress of
> science and the useful art" and measured by its capability of doing just
> that.  Machlup reports that the patent movement has been a movement of
> lawyers against economists.  The lawyers prevailed and created their
> self-reinforcing institutions.  But one day the whole thing may implode if
> they go on in a sectarian manner like this.
>
> Any patent law professionals who have a spark of conscience remaining in
> their soul should demand with us that this kind of myth-building using
> public institutiuons and public money be stopped immediately.  Let's make
> April 26th a "Day of Free Speech" or "Day of the Free Information
> Infrastructure" instead.  Or maybe "World Intellectual Poverty Day"?
>
> Hartmut Pilch
> Association for a Free Information Infrastructure
> http://swpat.ffii.org/
>
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