[Patents] Kindred Issues in Kindred Fora: Open Source Software

[seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org (Seth Johnson)]

(Forwarded from American Scientist September 98 Forum,
SEPTEMBER98-FORUM@LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 17:33:54 +0000
From: Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang@inria.fr>

One issue for computer scientists is that, to a significant
extent, their literature is composed of programs.  The
interest of free software (free as in freedom, to do what
you please with it) is that it can be improved and built
upon, exactly the way one does for mathematical theories or
proofs, or other scientific theories for that matter.

If Wiles had not published his proof (which was discovered
buggy, and thus could be corrected), his result would have
had, quite rightly, no credibility. The same holds true for
software ... you cannot trust (in many ways) software that
cannot be freely examined and experimented with (including
making changes).

But the difference is that scientific literature belongs to
the author, and hence you can solve your problems by uniting
and taking it in your own hands, as Stevan is suggesting.

On the other hand, software belongs to employers, which
makes things a bit more difficult. More importantly,
software is now encumbered with the patenting system (and
also indirectly by legislations like DMCA) so that
publishing software can become a criminal offense, not to
mention court actions that can go very quickly over $1000
000.

All this is based on a totally misguided view of the
economics of intangibles. For ideological reason, people try
to apply a capitalistic model that worked well for material
economy (e.g. 19th century). But the economic laws of
intangibles are quite different (for example, marginal cost
is zero), and there are many reasons to believe that the
model cannot be adapted that trivially.

Actually, I do not know of a single article in economic
literature that [implies] the usefulness of software
patenting. Quite the opposite.  But I am interested in
finding some ... if you know of any.

Scientific literature is just one problem. Probably the
easiest one to solve right now... this being said without
any intent to demean its importance and the work done here.

Happy new year

Bernard

On Sun, Jan 06, 2002 at 10:29:51AM +0000, Stevan Harnad
wrote:
> To: Peter Suber <peters@earlham.edu>
>
> Hi Peter, in case you didn't get this: An item
> for your next FOS Newsletter. On this particular
> issue, our narrower concerns about Open Access
> to the peer-reviewed literature and the wider
> concerns about open sourcing and public domain
> patenting of Bernard Lang as well as the worries
> about University privatization ambitions of
> Joseph Ransdell definitely converge...  the only
> reason I keep trying to re-route them away from
> the AmSci Forum is that if we start mixing up
> Universities' ambivalence about software
> give-aways with their hitherto forthcomingness
> about research giveaways, we are only asking for
> needless trouble!
>
> With software, the potential revenue at least
> makes it a debatable proposition (though an
> odious one) that the Universities should market
> their developments for revenue; but with
> research, it becomes altogether absurd and
> self-defeating. So better keep the two arenas
> apart, so they don't cross-pollinate one
> another's confusions!
> Chrs, Stevan
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2002 23:13:26 -0600
> From: sterling stoudenmire <sstouden@thelinks.com>
> To: harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk
> Subject: Public Money, Private Code
>
> http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/01/04/university_open_source/print.html
>
> >Public money, private code
> >
> >The drive to license academic research for profit is
> >stifling the spread of software that could be of universal
> >benefit.
> >
> >- - - - - - - - - - - -
> >By Jeffrey Benner
> >
> >Jan. 4, 2002 | Would the creation of the Internet be allowed
> >to happen today?
> >
> >The networked society we live in is in large part a gift
> >from the University of California to the world. In the
> >1980s, computer scientists at Berkeley working under
> >contract for the Defense Department created an improved
> >version of the Unix operating system, complete with a
> >networking protocol called the TCP/IP stack. Available for a
> >nominal fee, the operating system and network protocol grew
> >popular with universities and became the standard for the
> >military's Arpanet computer network. In 1992, Berkeley
> >released its version of Unix and TCP/IP to the public as
> >open-source code, and the combination quickly became the
> >backbone of a network so vast that people started to call
> >it, simply, "the Internet."
> >
> >Many would regard giving the Internet to the world as a
> >benevolent act fitting for one of the world's great public
> >universities. But Bill Hoskins, who is currently in charge
> >of protecting the intellectual property produced at U.C.
> >Berkeley, thinks it must have been a mistake. "Whoever
> >released the code for the Internet probably didn't
> >understand what they were doing," he says.
> >
> >
> >Brooklyn Linux Solutions
> >__________________________
> >http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Consulting
> >http://www.brooklynonline.com - For the love of Brooklyn
> >http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free
> >Software
> >http://www.nyfairuse.org - The foundation of Democracy
> >http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive or
> >stories and articles from around the net
> >http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/mp3/hooked.mp3 - Spring is
> >coming....
> >http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/downtown.html - See the New
> >Downtown Brooklyn....
> >
> >1-718-382-5752
> >
> >____________________________
> >New Yorker Linux Users Scene Fair Use -
> >because it's either fair use or useless....
> >

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