Anybody heard of www.priorart.org?
Since patents are great threat to Free Software (and software development in general), I'd like to have some constructive discussion about the problem (and especially about the priorart initiative) in this forum.
I don't expect this to become *the* forum about patent issues (there's already patents@liberte.aful.org, with very smart people in), but I think the topic is important enough to brainstorm about possible actions in the FSFE realm.
My first impression when I heard about it has been disgust, exacerbated by the fact that the initiative is welcome to some known free software personalities. I'm glad someone else confirmed my in-expressed points.
Mainly, I think the pro-swpat institutions are playing friends to better fool us. This "priorart" initiative can't help in busting bad patents; on the other hand it would help (if it has any effect, that I doubt) the patent offices and litigation companies.
One problem is that patents are mostly granted on so-vague claims that I don't see any way a repository of inventions can stop someone from filing bad patents (and someone else from granting them).
Also, current-art is increasing at an astonishing pace (if you include anything that is patentable under US-and-proposed-European law), it's definitely impossible to collect any meaningful amount of that. And why should I help them in making the system better? If they succeed they'll find it easier to export the US system here, and I am soon out of the market.
The final problem, in my opinion, is that publishing a real invention may well suggest malign people the filing of an obvious related paten. It has been demonstrated (in patents@) that patent offices consider "non-obvious" everything that is just "new".
Any thoughts, flames, suggestions?
/alessandro
On Fri, May 11, 2001 at 02:23:21PM +0200, Alessandro Rubini wrote:
Any thoughts, flames, suggestions?
Check out the write-up from lwn being skeptical, too. All in all it is a complicated matter I agree with skepticism on the initiative of priorart.org.
http://lwn.net/2001/0510/ | In the end, however, this is all defensive action, based on the idea | that the patent system is really OK, the only problem is that | insufficient information is available to patent examiners. If you | believe that the real problem is in the concept of software patents | to begin with, these approaches will seem inadequate. Wouldn't it be | better if we could fix the patent laws, and prevent software patents | from being implemented where they do not yet exist?
Disclaimer: I value lwn as a nice publication which really understands a lot Free Software issues. IMO they should also indicate this in being more clear in the language they use, which I pointed out to them a couple of times already.
Bernhard