There's a 'More details' link on the page...
I quote:
Software patents are used by convicted monopolists to threaten
customers who consider using rival software. As a result, patents
stifle innovation.
Patents are supposed to increase the rate of innovation by publicising
how inventions work. Reading a software patent gives no useful
information for creating or improving software. All patents are writen
in a sufficiently cryptic language to prevent them from being of any
use. Once decoded, the patents turn out to be for something so obvious
that programmers find them laughable.
It is not funny because the cost of defending against nuicance
lawsuites is huge.
The UK patent office grants software patents against the letter and
the spirit of the law. They do this by pretending that there is a
difference between software and 'computer implemented inventions'.
Some companies waste money on 'defensive patents'. These have no value
against pure litigation companies and do not counter threats made
directly to customers.
John.
On 1/11/07, Sean Gibbins <sean@???> wrote:
> Stephen Davies wrote:
> > Just a reminder (if you are interested and have not done so yet) that
> > No 10 Downing St are hosting a number of online petitions.
> > One that may interest LUG members is
> > http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/softwarepatents/
> >
>
> Hi Steve,
>
> I took a look and was less than impressed with the wording:
>
> 'We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make software patents
> clearly unenforcible.'
>
> It's not just me being thick is it, but surely that is nonsense? I see
> no point in adding my name to something that, through lack of clarity,
> dilutes the message and weakens the cause.
>
> Sean
>
> --
> Please post to: Hampshire@???
> Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire
> LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
