In an article posted at Google News today titled Linus Torvalds against EU patent directive, Linus Torvalds (creator of the Linux kernel and former student of Tanenbaum) along with some other folks from the open source community have issued a statement against the EU adopting software patent directives. The statement was posted at http://nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/intro/index.html.
I agree with Linus totally. At nosoftwarepatents.com there is a lot of good information about the dangers of patenting software. I see this practice as just plain greed. I've seen first hand accounts when I worked at Computer Associates how software patents inhibit inovation. Years are lost before we can move forward. My intuition tells me the very same thing Linus said: “It’s not even just about software patents. Patents on ideas are wrong, whether in software or in business. You should patent some concrete machinery, not a way of doing things.” I have known this in my heart for years. Now the fight is being taken to the street by individuals whos voice is being heard. Thank you Linus!
Amen to that! Anyone looking for a very well written argument on this topic should read Free Culture by Larry Lessig.
I really hope the European Union goes against these patents. If they do, they can force the US to rethink their methods dealing with intellectual property.
Posted by: Jose | November 24, 2004 at 04:21 PM