Free Software Linux

When I heard Barrack Obama use the proverb 'lipstick on a pig' the other day it got me thinking about language, and how it can be used to deceive as easily as to explain. Whilst listening to an elaborate theory full of jargon have you ever had the impression that it seemed completely out of touch with the real world? I usually work on the premise that if something can't be explained in pla [...]

As long-suffering readers of this blog will have noticed, one of my favourite hobby-horses is that the whole idea of "intellectual property” is a trick, designed to plug into the warm and fuzzy feeling most people have about the idea of property, and aiming to cover up the fact that what we are really dealing with here are intellectual monopolies – of which few people are fans....On Open Enterprise blog.

It’s hard to compete for attention with the drama of the big bailout and this presidential race. But bubbles are news, at least when they burst. The patent bubble hasn’t burst, but judging by last week’s Wall Street Journal story on Intellectual Ventures, it’s getting pretty big.

After Prashant was Venkatesh Hariharan of Red Hat. He spoke on the practical benefits and harms of software patents, and spoke at length about the difference between legal protection of software in the form of patents and via copyright. He pointed to data showing that lawyers are the ones who benefit most from software patents, and that software developers were the ones who suffered most. Pointing to such practical issues such as how does one go about coding a simple e-commerce transaction when more than 4000 patents have already been granted in that area, he brought down the level of discussion from abstract notions of laws and legalities to practical experiences of software programmers.

The Free Software User’s Group, Bangalore, is conducting a National Public Meeting on Software Patents on Saturday, October 4. There are big stakes involved in the control of software in an era when software is becoming increasingly central to the way we humans organize our lives and inhabit a democracy.

Grapes with an EULA!

Check out: World Day Against Software Patents stopsoftwarepatents.org Read the Petition to stop software patents to understand the dangers posed by software patents.

How good to see one of “us brits” over there… BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Tuesday, September 2, 2008 — The GNU operating system is turning 25 this year, and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has kicked off its month-long celebration of the anniversary by releasing “Happy Birthday to GNU,” a short film featuring the English humorist, actor, novelist and film maker Stephen Fry. This is a great introduction to Free Software - one that your mum, dad and other friends & relies can understand.

Some time back I noted that one of the crazier consequences of an obsession with intellectual monopolies was that vital health information - specifically, DNA sequences of bird flu viruses - were not being released to other laboratories for fear that the unscrupulous might patent the damn things (as if naturally-occuring DNA could be patented). Fortunately, the country in question, Indonesia, was persuaded to release them to the scientific community for the common good. And what happens? This:

The Candle light vigil to “Say No To Software Patents” is an occasion to raise civil society voice against this back door trojan to Indian patent system. Software Patents kill innovation and competition. Patents turn software publishing into the privilege of a few. Candle Light Vigil

One of the difficulties of fighting patents is that they are so abstract. This makes explaining their deficiencies doubly difficult. It's one of the reasons why I like to hammer home that they are monopolies: most people understand - and hate - monopolies, and can see why getting rid of them might be a good idea. Analogies are useful, too, and the idea of using the concept of subprime patents by analogy with the crisis in the financial world wrought by subprime mortgages is brilliantly effective:

The Free Software User’s Group, Bangalore is co-ordinating a campaign to “Say No To Software Patents” in India. Say No To Software Patents

Patents are not necessary for innovation, writes Venkatesh Hariharan in the Financial Express. But they offer valuable property protection, says Saikrishna Rajagopal - who, by the way, happens to be (as mentioned at the end of the article) a lawyer!

When there’s no ownership, the pursuit of individual self-interest can make everyone worse off. But Heller shows that having too much ownership creates its own problems. If too many people own individual parts of a valuable asset, it’s easy to end up with gridlock, since any one person can simply veto the use of the asset. But property rights need to be limited to be effective. The more we divide common resources like science and culture into small, fenced-off lots, Heller shows, the more difficult we make it for people to do business and to build something new. Innovation, investment, and growth end up being stifled. The Permission Problem

I have had a long-time problem with Mono and the Mono-based applications that, for reasons I do not understand, come installed by default with Ubuntu. For those who don’t know about it, Mono: provides the necessary software to develop and run .NET client and server applications on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, and Unix. That sounds pretty innocuous on the face of it. But Mono has a potentially fatal sting-in-the-tail for some, and leaves a rather nasty taste in the mouths of many others…