Re: The politics of software over-protection -- moving forward..

[Hartmut Pilch <phm@a2e.de>]

Russell Ormond wrote:

>   In this forum I have read largely "all or nothing" scenarios, putting
> each camp into an immovable situation -- each has chicken-little "the sky
> is falling" emotions which mean that there is no possibility of productive
> dialog.

As Xavier wrote, there is one clear distinction which can separate the
undesired patents from the rest.

It is well-documented and well-established in patent law.  An in-depth
description is found at

        http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/analysis/

This is not "all or nothing" but a compromise with a broken system which
allows this system to do quite a lot of harm in the area of hardware.

As said before, we are not immobile but proposing a lot of different
options beside this one (which in fact doesn't come from us but mainly
from the patent lobby's insistence that it wants to use the word
"technical" as THE distinction criterion).

The immobility is not due to anybody's argumentation strategy but due to
socio-political facts:  industrial patent lawyers have called the shots in
patent politics, and they don't see a need of a dialog nor have they been
trained to conduct one.

We are not yet in a stage where interests are defined and dialogs based
thereon can start.

The task is like that of getting the soviet block to engage in rational
discourse.  Once detente really started, it meant the crumbling of the
whole soviet empire.

Before the Gorbachov era, we had to spend a lot of time and energy in the
West discussing with more or less well-meaning people in the West who
blamed "both sides" (or specially the West) for failing to be peaceful
enough and asked for a softening of western positions.  While this may not
always be without merits (e.g. in shaking up some mindlessly hawkish
attitudes), it is usually justly characterised as "political naivete".
The error consists in ignoring the political context in which you apply
your rules of ethics.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
140,000 signatures against software patents          http://noepatents.org/