meaning of "program"

[Hartmut Pilch <phm@a2e.de>]

RMS wrote:

>     I wonder if sometimes he said something like "software patents
>     wouldn't be bad if they were as narrow as copyright",
>
> I have indeed said things like that.  The point is that if a software
> patent are not "patenting programs".  If a software patent covered a
> single program, it would be harmless (but also nobody would bother to
> apply for it).

Software patents do cover a single program.

E.g.

        system and method using [ elements of a general-purpose computer
        ], characterised by that [ a certain combination of steps is
        performed ]

This is a computer program, of which many implementations can exist.

Just like

        production process using an alkaline element, a rare-earth metal
        and  ..., characterised by that [ a certain combination of steps
        is performed ]

is a chemical reaction sequence (or even "chemical program" if you like),
of which many implementations (some using Na, some K for "alkaline
element" etc) exist.

It is not helpful especially in the European context to reduce the meaning
of the word "program for computers" to "particular copyrighted instance".
That is what patent attorneys have, since the mid-eighties, been pushing
the EPO to do and what Arlene McCarthy claims the EPO means.  The EPO
itself has at least until recently been reluctant to define "program" in
this way.  They in fact didn't make it quite so easy for themselves, but
rather tried to distinguish between "program as such" and "program with
futher technical effects", which perhaps could be something like the
above "chemical program".

If you want to explain to people that software patents are broader than
copyright, you have to find another way.  It is wrong and
counter-productive to say that such patents are not directed to programs.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
140,000 votes 400 firms against software patents     http://noepatents.org/