Re(4): [DMCA_Discuss] Re: [Patents] IT World Feature: Patentl y ridic ulous: What's Europe to do?

["Sylvain Perchaud" <sylvain@europe-shareware.org>]

Le jeudi 22 août 2002, à 12:11, Volkan Yüksel (ARGE-VESTMAN) a écrit:

>Hello Sylvain,
>
>Could you pls explain; If there is no sw patents there could not be enormus
>sized monopoly computer companies

I wasn't saying that without software patents we would have a free,
competitive, market, nor was I saying that software patents are the main
factor of the development of monopolies.

What I wanted to point out is that:
1. the software market is a market with really strong network effects
(need for standards, interoperability issues...) which naturally tend to
create monopolies.

2. the (both US and European) authorities are already facing many
problems (or lack of will) to regulate the market (see the Microsoft
antitrust case: Microsoft is guilt, as pronounced by the Courts of
Appeal, but nobody wants to take the necessary measures to stop such
illegal practices).

3. software patents are monopoles on ideas only affordable for the
established companies. Hence their duration (20 years) is more than 6
times the cycle of innovation (3 years), which has an important slowdown
effect on the innovation rate.

4. so software patents (along with business methods patents which are
quite the same) must not be allowed because they offer a new anti-
competitive arm for multinationals against medium sized innovative firms.


>, than how could small competing companies
>could establish standards that brought great things to all of us like "IBM
>compatible PC"

The IBM PC is quite a counter example. IBM was harshly criticized because
they didn't saw the advent of personnal computers and were compelled to
react in a hurry (as when Microsoft discovered that the Internet wasn't a
"useless hobby for geeks").

The innovator here was Micral (a french company which built a personnal
computer in the early seventies), and the company which understood the
potential of the market was Apple with its famous Apple 2 computer
(launched in 1977, 4 years before the IBM PC).

Apple was a startup, not an established company.

>, "DOS"

DOS was released by Microsoft which was at this time a small company.
DOS simply succeeded thanks to B. Gates who tied the DOS to the IBM PC.
At the same time CP/M (another OS) was available and dominating the
market, its quality was a bit better than DOS but DOS was cheaper for IBM.

Both Microsoft and Digital Research (creator of CP/M) were medium sized
companies.


> "DirectX"

DirectX is simply the graphic engine of the Amiga computer (launched in
1986), the Microsoft coders admitted that they copied the Amiga video
system...

I remember that I enjoyed using a graphic user interface (such as the
Mac), good sound capabilities, advanced graphic and video features on my
small and cheap Atari ST in the mid-eighties... at a time where IBM PCs
were running DOS which had no graphic user interface, no sound
capabilities, no advanced graphic and video features...

Again, the innovators were Amiga & Atari enginers


>, USB etc.

USB is a hardware standard, this has nothing to do with software.



--
Sylvain Perchaud
http://www.europe-shareware.org