Linus Torvalds against EU patent directive
November 24th, 2004 Leave a comment Visited 745 times, 1 so far today
Linus Torvalds against EU patent directive
Linus Torvalds (Linux) along with Michael Widenius (MySQL database), and Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP scripting language) have issued a statement against the proposed legislation that would codify the practice of granting software patents in the E.U.
They are asking the European Union Council to reject this proposal. They claim that software patent directive would be harmful to the European economy. They are suggesting the authorities to go for copyright law instead of patent law.
Torvalds said this in a mail: “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.â€
The statement was posted on a website (Nosoftwarepatents.com) launched to protest against software patents. Red Hat and MySQL AB are some of the supporters of this movement.
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Linus plays pocket-pool with Bill Gates on the weekends.
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LikePatents on ideas are the bilge of modern society. But like the local laws that require someone to be killed in order to install that stoplight at a dangerous intersection, we will undoubtedly see much worse with patent law before it gets better.
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LikeAbsolutely correct. You can only impose patent on tangible things. It will definitely impact on creating thinking if restricted.
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LikeLinus is completely correct. The abuse of common sense that goes on in software in the name of patent protection is appalling and I speak as the reluctant holder of several. Software, as much as anything, stands on the shoulders of giants. Any patent protection in software should be limited to something like 1000 a year to force some sort of quality bar and limited to 3 years to reflect the dynamic pace of software.
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LikePatents in this day and age seem to do more to hinder innovation than excite it. Patends should only be issued for profound discoveries. There are too many patents that are issued for trivial no-brainers like the GIF image compression (counting colored dots), hyperlink text (a button without a border), single click buying (storing some buying preferences). Patents today, especially software patents, rarely spur innovation, they do more to prevent it by limiting peoples freedom to create and curtailing industry standardization on the most effecient processes.
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LikeYes, Linus Torvalds is 100% correct! If I were to patent all the ideas I have had in the 50 years of working life which I have enjoyed, I would single handedly be able to hold the world to ransom. Is this the circumstance this proposal would lead us toward? I sincerely hope not!!
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LikeLinus is 100% correct. If an idea can be patented, then it locks down the creative incentive of our most promising innovators. Its contrary to free thought.
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