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From: Jean-Michel POURE <jm@poure.com>
Reply-To: jm@poure.com
To: Roberto Di Cosmo <roberto@dicosmo.org>,
	Russell McOrmond <russell@flora.ca>
Subject: Re: [Patents] Anyone done the research:  SCO, IBM and software patents.
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 11:27:32 +0200
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Le Vendredi 24 Octobre 2003 10:51, roberto@dicosmo.org a =E9crit :
> While we continue our fight to abolish software patents, it is
> nevertheless reassuring, even if, maybe, a bit odd, to have one of
> the big guys covering free software with the very legal tool we are
> trying to have removed.

No, for a simple question of law:

Laws do not only exist because they are written but because people respect=
=20
them. Somehow, a written law needs a social consensus to apply.

Whenever you enter the game of companies selling land on the moon, you some=
how=20
agree on the principles of selling land on the moon. Whenever you agree on=
=20
IBMs patents on software, somehow you legalize them and create a "fake"=20
social consensus.

Soon, the danger is that actors, like Mr Coward Old Timer, will raise your=
=20
written ideas and convert them into weapons agains your original thoughts.

If you think "law", think "society", do not only take into account=20
"companies". Commercial Law is only a small part of Civil Law. Not the=20
converse.

As I am only an amateur in law, Jurists registering on the list may explain=
 it=20
more deeply.=20

Furthermore, as a question of principles, I do not believe in "fictive laws=
",=20
because law is a living body which shall only deal with existing issues, no=
t=20
fictive ones. Laws can be "abstract" but not "fictive".

Because the amended laws proposed by the parliament come from an elected bo=
dy,=20
they have more chances to result in a social consensus and thus will be=20
applied and respected.

We do not need any other protection than Copyright, the Constitution and ou=
r=20
Civil Rights. We do not need a licence to breathe air, walk freely in the=
=20
streets, listen to music, compose poems or write software.

In a way, we are all Berliners.

Best regards,
Jean-Michel


