[Fsf-friends] INDIA: Computer programme patenting may brake IT boom
Frederick Noronha (FN)
fred@bytesforall.org
Sat Feb 19 00:51:27 IST 2005
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1023943.cms
Computer programme patenting may brake IT boom
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2005 06:17:58 PM]
NEW DELHI: Imagine a scenario where a music composer is prevented from
being inspired by another musician. He has to start from scratch and give
an entirely new definition to music. Unimaginable, isn't it? Now replace
'music' with 'software' and this is what the Indian government is seeking
to do. Or so some critics argue.
The amendments to the Indian Patent Act introduced by a recent Ordinance
will allow all computer programmes to be patented. The Indian Patent Act,
as modified in 2002, had made "a mathematical method or a business method
or a computer programme per se or algorithms" non-patentable.
However, the recent amendment changes this phrase defining what cannot be
patented to "a computer programme per se other than its technical
application to industry or a combination with hardware, a mathematical or
business method or algorithms."
Since any commercial software has some industry application and these
applications are technical in nature, it opens virtually all software to
patenting, say the critics of the move.
As a booming software nation, can India afford to take such a step
without harming interests of the industry? These were concerns expressed
at a press conference organised by the Delhi Science Forum on Tuesday.
The US and Japan, they said, are two countries that have provided for
patent protection in software, which has adversely impacted smaller
developers. European Parliament has been forced to defer software
patenting in the wake of widespread opposition to such a move.
A patent in the case of software grants monopoly control over not just
the 'expression' of a function or idea in computer code, which could be
covered by copyright, but over the very idea itself.
Thus, software would be covered by both copyright and patents, perhaps the
only instance of a product being underpinned by both. Richard Stallman,
co-developer of the GNU-Linux operating system and proponent of free
software says, "Since software patents cover software ideas, it makes them
a dangerous obstacle to all software development."
An example is Amazon's singleclick agreement. Amazon.com was granted a
patent on a system that remembers customer credit card data from visit to
visit, so that customers could, on all visits after their first, simply
order products and then click once to buy them using a stored credit card
number.
After two rounds of litigation, this patent was upheld and Amazon was able
to prevent its chief competitor, barnesandnoble.com, from using a similar
system.
The main argument against software patenting is that it will kill
innovations, by leaving small firms or software developers liable for
patent infringements. "That's like saying, be the greatest genius in
history or don't even try", said Stallman.
Small developers will always be fighting with their backs to the wall as
they would not have the financial muscle to compete with dominant players
in the market.
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Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia
Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436
http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com
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Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your
vocation. --Aristotle
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