[Patents] Patnews on Pierret

[Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang@inria.fr> (Bernard Lang)]

I do not think so

The security issue is unrelated to the patent.

The issue is that, if software is patentable, this will enforce a
monopoly on some applications, which will be exclusively proprietary.
The unavailability of the source code is what raises the security
issue, whatever the patent might be.

  I cannot fathom what you actually understood. ... but I do not see
any problem.

   Regarding technical effect (personnal understanding) :
  - official bodies never defined it (I know you did, but I want theirs)
  - what is more important, the only criterion for me is social usefulness
    social usefulness has to be defined by technical domain
      (eg. would patenting of sexual techniques help the economy or innovation
        in the sexual domain, or anything else of value to society)
    there many ways of defining relevant domains, and technical effect is just
       one possibility.
    but the definition of such criteria comes second to the social usefulness
       principle.

Bernard

PS which secret newsletter ?


On Mon, Jul 09, 2001 at 02:19:31PM +0200, PILCH Hartmut wrote:
> A certain secret newsletter contains a nice comment at the end.  The
> assertion that "security issues are a technical effect"  resonates with
> nothing in European patent law, and the conclusions drawn therefrom can
> probably be understood under Gregorian logics only.
> 
> >     --  MARCH: FRENCH MINISTER COMES OUT AGAINST SOFTWARE PATENTS
> >
> > French industry minister rejects patents, backs Linux
> >
> >     By: John Lettice
> >     http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/17960.html
> >     Posted: 29/03/2001 at 09:04 GMT
> >
> > The French government has lined up against software patents. The
> > minister in charge of patent policy, industry secretary Christian
> > Pierret, last week stated that he opposed them, and that they "would
> > kill innovation and promote judicial terrorism" by multinational
> > companies against startups.
> >
> > .................
> >
> > Pierret, who made the comments in an interview with magazine 01
> > Informatique, seems to have made a convincing bid for Open Source
> > pin-up status whle he was about it. "I support Linux and free software,"
> > he said, "because they allow faster and more robust development to put
> > public administration systems online. Commercial software raises security
> > issues, because one doesn't know what's inside it. This is why I am
> > against software patents in Europe."
> >
> >                                       ====
> >
> > Actually his objection helps support software patents.  If his concern is
> > security issues, and since security issues are a technical effect, his
> > economic (thus making the patents useful) objection, which resonates with
> > nothing in patent law, becomes yet another argument for the patentability
> > of software in Europe.
> 
> 
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