[Sussex] Some Good Will Come From Software Patents

[Geoffrey Teale]

Steve,

Just read your post briefly, do forgive me if I misunderstood or missed
something.

You're suggesting that western software patents may drive more business
into the third world as companies try to avoid licensing costs?

This may be true in the short term, but what will happen in the longer
term is that the countries that do well will want to join the World
Trade Organisation, as and when they do they will be forced recognise
the western patent systems by the almighty weight of the USA (as China
found out with copyright evasion).  Ultimately everyone will come in
line and then we'll all be screwed.

Why are we on the verge of Software Patents via the back door?  Because
special interest groups in the US (And admittedly a few in the EU) want
it, and they'll keep trying to force it through whichever way they can.
The USA recently used its economic might to force Australia into
accepting their patent law.  The EU is the only organisation with enough
economic might to push back against the USA's current "Monopolies and
chap labour for all" stance - if we don't start winning these battles,
and caring a lot more about these big issues rather than harping on
about "saving the pound" and "keeping out the immigrants" (and all the
other trashy, over inflated lies the gutter press pedals to draw
attention away from its owner's agendas) then we are destined to a life
enslaved to the corporations who can afford the most lawyers.

In short, if we want to avoid that future we have to:

- Stop fighting Europe and get actively involved in making the bodies
that control our law (both in the UK and Europe) understand the dangers.

- Support organisations like the Free Software Foundation (Europe) in
their campaign against software patents.

-- 
Geoffrey Teale <gteale at cmedltd.com>
Cmed Technology