Re: [Patents] Software is not hardware, social sciences are not natural sciences.

[Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang@inria.fr>]

On Fri, Mar 12, 2004 at 11:10:37AM +0100, Jonas Maebe wrote:
> Economics and software are two completely different beasts. Software is 
> merely a way to describe mathematical operations

not necessarily ...  (e.g. equational programming)

> in a way a computer

or more often a programmer

> can understand them 

> A description of something is not patentable subject matter,

but what is described may be

Copyright may guard the description, while patent may guard what is
described.
  (I reject the term "protect", since it is more the kind of protection
you get by being jailed)

> Finally, innovations in mathematics are also not patentable subject 
> matter.

yes

> If you write a program with instructions for a computer on how to 
> operate a drill, you obviously have to know how that drill works. If 
> you write a book with instructions for a human on how to operate a 
> drill, you also have to know how that drill works. So in that sense 
> there is more to programming than just maths, just like there is more 
> to writing than literature, spelling and grammar (unless you are 
> writing about literature, spelling and grammar).

Yes, but there may be invention inasmuch as the program is doing
something specific with the drill related to the drill properties.
Hence you can patent this specific way of using the drill as specified
by the program (which is not the program itself, or "as such").

However, the program itself, independant of the drill, cannot be
covered by patenting.  It is just an abstract object, which you can
freely use in another context, not related to the operation of a
drill.

> However, that doesn't change the fact that a program is merely a 
> mathematical description of something and that all innovations as far 
> as programming are concerned, are innovations in mathematics (and 
> logical reasoning, but I consider logic as part of mathematics).

You are correct, and the only difference between a program (understood
a the description of calculation, which is somewhat limitative) and a
mathematical proof is a notational one.  As established by Curry and
Howard  (1980)

Bernard

-- 
         Non aux Brevets Logiciels  -  No to Software Patents
           SIGNEZ    http://petition.eurolinux.org/    SIGN

Bernard.Lang@inria.fr             ,_  /\o    \o/    Tel  +33 1 3963 5644
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~lang/  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  Fax  +33 1 3963 5469
            INRIA / B.P. 105 / 78153 Le Chesnay CEDEX / France
         Je n'exprime que mon opinion - I express only my opinion
                 CAGED BEHIND WINDOWS or FREE WITH LINUX