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Linus, Rasmus and Monty against software patents

The L, M and P of LAMP have jointly spoken: Linus Torvalds (Linux), Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP), Monty Widenius (MySQL). This is about software patents, and that they are a really bad idea.
Their statement can be found at http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/intro/app0411.html
(the No Software Patents web site contains lots of excellent info)

I personally feel very strongly about this issue as my background is in software development.
So why are software patents a bad idea?
For starters, they are unnecessary. When you write something, you have copyright on it.

A key problem may be that software, to most people, is like magic. I think that Arthur C. Clarke stated this very well in one of his three laws:

    “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

One the best analogies for software that I have heard is architecture.
For those who have never built a house, it’s a mystery how a house is built. But anybody who knows anything about building a house will use the same concepts that everybody else does… floor joists, trusses, stud walls, wallboards, siding, bricks and mortar, etc.

And really, most of what computer programs do is about “bricks” and “boards” being combined in various standard ways. These things are so well known that nobody dares claim a patent on it!
People in the industry of course see how their colleagues do things, and perhaps build on that for their next project. The openness helps everybody: it encourages innovation and helps advance the state of the art. Sounds good to me.

Many patents relating to software actually refer to business processes, which are even more dangerous. Selling something online using a credit card, stuff like that. It’s ridiculous!
Realistically, there’s no way you can build even a simple web site without tripping over some patents. I suppose that’s why companies now sprout up offering insurance against this – but to me, that just highlights the fundamental problem.

Be gone, software patents!

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