[Fsfe-ie] Re: U.S. Office Joins an Effort to Improve Software Patents, by John Markoff, NY Times, 10 Jan 2006

[Joseph Kiniry]

Hi Ciaran,

On 10 Jan, 2006, at 12:15, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:

> Joseph Kiniry <kiniry at acm.org> writes:
>> Has anyone tracked these proposed software projects?
>
> This is the first I've heard of them.
>
> They're probably not worth too much attention though.  They say  
> they're
> trying to help free software, but they're avoiding our main problem  
> (that
> patents could block us from writing useful free software  
> replacements for
> popular proprietary software), and they're addressing the problem  
> that hits
> Microsoft and the big proprietary companies as much as it hits us  
> (patent
> thickets and trolls/zombies living off litigation based on patents  
> bought
> from less-litigious companies).
>
> I'm not saying that initiatives like this are not backed by good  
> intentions,
> but there's not much that people in the USA can actually do to  
> prevent the
> harm that software patents do to free software (and software  
> freedom in
> general).

I was interested mainly because of the whole "see, the PTO *is*  
responding to the complaints of the FLOSS community!" angle which,  
while is partly true, for the reasons you and Shane have highlighted  
and others, is certainly not wholly true.  OTOH, maybe this is just a  
first step on the road of true reform that might happen within our  
lifetime.

Joe