Privately Owned Algorithms: A new online film explains how the patent system is out of control

[marmar]

from OnTheCommons.org:



Privately Owned Algorithms
A new online film explains how the patent system is out of control.

By David Bollier


Can abstract ideas be patented? Sometime soon, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to make a major decision regarding the constitutional scope of patents. The decision could have major implications for the legality of free software.

At the heart of the case known as Bilsky v. Kappos is a “business method patent” application that sought to obtain a patent for a method of managing the risk of bad weather through commodities trading. Bilsky did not build any invention or device, as traditional patents have required; he came up with a method of doing business that orchestrates human knowledge and interactions, for which he believes he deserves a patent.

But should the government be in the business of granting legally protecting monopolies on abstract ideas such as “business methods” and mathematical algorithms? The outcome of the case is being watched closely by the free software community because it could negatively affect the future of collaboratively developed code.

The far-reaching dangers of broad patents is nicely explained in a new thirty-minute video, Patently Absurd: How Software Patents Broke the System, by independent filmmaker Luca Lucarini and financed by the Free Software Foundation.

The film is a lucid, interesting introduction to a topic that is rightly seen as arcane and complicated. It explains the origins of software patents and their negative effects with clear explanations and stories from some of the leading IP attorneys associated with the free software movement. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://onthecommons.org/content.php?id=2715

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. If upheld, this will be used by big business to strangle or acquire

any technology that even remotely threatens their products market share.

[girl gone mad]

2. If upheld, the center of future innovation will rapidly shift to China..

and other countries where "intellectual property" has no meaning.