

Petition the EFF to Oppose Software Patents  - mayop100
http://www.change.org/petitions/the-electronic-frontier-foundation-oppose-software-patents?1

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kkowalczyk
This petition seems harmful to me.

To start, EFF doesn't support patents.

The <http://defendinnovation.org> site is EFF's attempt to evangelize the idea
that current patent system is broken and gather support for changes that would
improve the system a lot.

Any lunatic apparently can start a petition on change.org and some did because
EFF's (realistic) position isn't radical enough for his taste: he wants
abolition of software patents.

Now, personally I would prefer abolition to the reform ideas proposed by EFF
but this is not about what is better. EFF probably has to consider things
like: does a given idea has a chance of being implemented by congress.

EFF is fighting the good fight. They try to improve the awful patent system
and I have no doubt they do it in the best way they can.

Nothing stops the guy who created this petition to evangelize abolition of
software patents. He can even start his own foundation for defending internet
and civil liberties.

But attacking EFF in this way is harmful. He brings nothing positive to the
table and can only derail EFF's efforts by instigating infighting among people
who want the same thing: fix broken patent system.

Finally, one can support EFF's reform as well as patent abolition. We would be
better off with either one.

Just don't attack EFF for trying to do something about patents.

~~~
binarybits
By all means sign both the EFF petition and my petition. Still, EFF has never
been the kind of organization that tries to cut deals inside the beltway.
They've always been an organization that takes principled positions. Given
that reputation, I think the implicit message of their campaign--that
abolition is too radical even for EFF to endorse--undermines the argument for
software patent abolition. I have no problem with them advocating incremental
reforms, but they should also say that the ideal reform is eliminating
software patents altogether.

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dfc
Link to the actual EFF page for the petition:

<https://defendinnovation.org/>

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carterschonwald
There's one thing about software patents that I've come to realize: If a
products sole competitive advantage over otherwise exchangeable goods is
algorithmic... Is the world a better place if those insights are kept
proprietary, or if they are made public knowledge via the patent process?

Software patents have been misused in many contexts, but for work that
genuinely transformatively advances the state of the art, is protecting the
right to have a viable business around this insight while making the mechanics
of this knowledge public, is that a bad thing?

And just to repeat myself, broadly yes software patents have been awarded
inappropriately time and again. But for those true insights, is a world better
with a patented computational insight or a proprietary one?

~~~
prodigal_erik
For brilliant masterworks that would otherwise have gone unknown for decades,
sure. But if I demand $10M for an invention that two vendors could have
otherwise independently recreated for $1M and five years each, I have made
that disclosure a net loss for society and the industry. The problem is that
there's no market mechanism ensuring that licenses are available fairly at
lower costs than would otherwise be spent on reinvention. And of course the
avalanche of patents which merely disclose the obvious and claim the entire
problem, yet can only be overturned individually at enormous risk and
(uncompensated!) expense. And the 3x wilful-infringement doctrine over which
practitioners are well advised _never to even look_ at patents.

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DiabloD3
I've flagged this. The EFF already is against software patents and the
Change.org petition seems to be a hostile misinformation campaign.

~~~
binarybits
If you read the material at defendinnovation.org, you'll see that they do not
oppose patents on software. They call for changes to the patent system
designed to make software patents work better. Which is fine, but not the same
thing.

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ThomPete
It's interesting. I am against Software Patents and find them totally absurd.

Yet I have this one little UI invention that I believe I could get patented if
I went for it. (I wont)

I wonder how many of these patents are about vanity more than actual business
intent.

~~~
fpgeek
If you're not going to patent it, publish and/or otherwise disclose it ASAP,
to establish priority. Otherwise, in many countries, you can be sued for using
your own invention by someone who bothered to go to the patent office.

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trotsky
Isn't change.org just a lead generation website for fund raisers?

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technomancy
Petition the Pope to oppose violence.

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jimktrains2
I'm surprised the EFF supports software patents...

They're just mathematical constructs, I'm not even sure how they're
patentable.

~~~
kkowalczyk
EFF doesn't support patents.

What they try to do is to gather support for the reform of patent system via
<http://defendinnovation.org>.

What some guy wants is for EFF to instead go for the kill (abolition of patent
system).

Why does he feel that he should dictate what EFF does? I don't know.

Did he provide any reasoning as to why EFF should do what he wants as opposed
to what they are actually doing? Not really.

Why he started a petition vs. writing a blog post describing his displeasure?
Beats me.

To recap: EFF is doing something about broken patent system. They started
<http://defendinnovation.org> and are trying to gather support for patent
system reform and actually make this happen.

Some guy spent 5 minutes creating a petition asking EFF to drop what they're
doing and do something else instead. Because he clearly knows betters.

~~~
jimktrains2
Point number one would only exist if they supported software patents.

Also why was my original post downvoted? I thought it added to the discussion.

