alcy
New Member
I would like to urge all members to download (or watch streaming) the movie named Patent Absurdity. Its a movie centered around the ill effects & the degrading nature of software patents.
CLICK ME !
The name is self-explanatory, however I'd like to give an example from the movie itself which us, music-lovers can easily understand.
Imagine this situation:
Lets say in the early 18th century Europe, classical symphony musicians started securing patents such as, a particular rhythm or a sequence of notes and chords, or a set of instruments used to make a certain composition.
Now, here comes Beethoven somewhere in the 19th century and he has to really struggle to find his way through all the patents that have been secured previously and at some point he violates some of them. Now, Beethoven thinks he's making a good composition but he doesn't know he's violating patents secured previously. He feels he is innocent but the patent holders think he is just jealous and incapable as they had already used a set of notes/instruments/rhythm before Beethoven etc. Beethoven gets sued and today, none of the music we hear these days or the equipment we own would make any sense whatsoever.
Sadly & frustratingly this is what is happening in the software field and it is really troublesome and unfair that programmers are encumbered with such issues, such as being blamed for using patented code, technique or algorithm. And this needs attention and a change of behavior by us, the users.
Anyway, thought I'd share it with folks here on HFV and know their views.
Also, if some of you are already aware of this messed up situation and would like to be of help or would like to contribute a change, I urge you to start using Free & Open Source Software. You can start by learning to use operating systems other than Microsoft Windows, such as various linux distributions, or other unix based operating systems such as FreeBSD.
Thanks for reading and here's the link again CLICK ME NOW !
CLICK ME !
The name is self-explanatory, however I'd like to give an example from the movie itself which us, music-lovers can easily understand.
Imagine this situation:
Lets say in the early 18th century Europe, classical symphony musicians started securing patents such as, a particular rhythm or a sequence of notes and chords, or a set of instruments used to make a certain composition.
Now, here comes Beethoven somewhere in the 19th century and he has to really struggle to find his way through all the patents that have been secured previously and at some point he violates some of them. Now, Beethoven thinks he's making a good composition but he doesn't know he's violating patents secured previously. He feels he is innocent but the patent holders think he is just jealous and incapable as they had already used a set of notes/instruments/rhythm before Beethoven etc. Beethoven gets sued and today, none of the music we hear these days or the equipment we own would make any sense whatsoever.
Sadly & frustratingly this is what is happening in the software field and it is really troublesome and unfair that programmers are encumbered with such issues, such as being blamed for using patented code, technique or algorithm. And this needs attention and a change of behavior by us, the users.
Anyway, thought I'd share it with folks here on HFV and know their views.
Also, if some of you are already aware of this messed up situation and would like to be of help or would like to contribute a change, I urge you to start using Free & Open Source Software. You can start by learning to use operating systems other than Microsoft Windows, such as various linux distributions, or other unix based operating systems such as FreeBSD.
Thanks for reading and here's the link again CLICK ME NOW !
