From: Marc Battyani
Subject: Stop making web sites! (and programming...)
Date: 
Message-ID: <bo31a5$l6d@library1.airnews.net>
Well at least if you don't want to infringe one of the 2859 Micro$oft US
patents. :(

Some examples:

Don't use graphical elements:
"Method and apparatus for assigning URLs to graphical objects in a web page"

Don't generate SQL:
"Automated schema and interface generation"

Don't generate HTML with a macro:
"Automatic generation of text and computer-executable code for run-time use"

Some funny ones:

"Method and system for automatic type and replace of characters in a sequence
of characters"

"Just-in-time activation and as-soon-as-possible deactivation or server
application components"

"In-line database access statements without a pre-compiler"

"Methods and systems for processing HTTP requests"

"Object type specific access control"

"Method and system for using a mark-list for garbage collection"

etc...

They even patented property lists:
"Token-based object description"
Abstract: Token-based object description is disclosed. In one embodiment, a
system includes a plurality of objects and a set of tokens. Each object has
at least one attribute, such as a type. Each token is mapped to a unique
attribute. Each object is describable utilizing the set of tokens.

All this is ridiculous.And now, thanks to a Arlene McCarthy, a British Member
of the European Parliament (http://www.arlenemccarthy.labour.co.uk/) we have
software patents in Europe too. :(

Micro$oft patents are here:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fne
tahtml%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=microsoft&FIELD1=ASNM&co1=AND&TE
RM2=&FIELD2=&d=ptxt

This was my grumbling of the day...

Marc

[I'm still waiting for contributors for cl-pdf
(www.fractalconcept.com/asp/cl-pdf.html) and cl-typesetting
(www.fractalconcept.com/ex.pdf)]

From: Marco Antoniotti
Subject: Re: Stop making web sites! (and programming...)
Date: 
Message-ID: <OSepb.112$KR3.46272@typhoon.nyu.edu>
Marc Battyani wrote:

	...

> 
> All this is ridiculous.And now, thanks to a Arlene McCarthy, a British Member
> of the European Parliament (http://www.arlenemccarthy.labour.co.uk/) we have
> software patents in Europe too. :(

Well, reading the web site of the MEP (well, she is a subject of Her 
Majesty :) what does the 'E' really stand for? :) ) it would seem that 
the EU legislation (which, AFAIK is not completed yet) would disqualify 
some of the patents you mentioned in your list.

Cheers
--
Marco
From: Henrik Motakef
Subject: Re: Stop making web sites! (and programming...)
Date: 
Message-ID: <86n0becsjq.fsf@pokey.internal.henrik-motakef.de>
Marco Antoniotti <·······@cs.nyu.edu> writes:

> Marc Battyani wrote:
> 
> 	...
> 
> > All this is ridiculous.And now, thanks to a Arlene McCarthy, a
> > British Member
> > of the European Parliament (http://www.arlenemccarthy.labour.co.uk/) we have
> > software patents in Europe too. :(
> 
> Well, reading the web site of the MEP (well, she is a subject of Her
> Majesty :) what does the 'E' really stand for? :) ) it would seem that
> the EU legislation (which, AFAIK is not completed yet) would
> disqualify some of the patents you mentioned in your list.

Indeed, the way it seems to turn out, while certianly not perfect, is
far from worst-case. Especially considering that in fact there are
already software patents in Europe, some of them pretty ridiculous.
(swpat.ffii.org has a nice "horror gallery")

Unfortunatly, even a perfect software patent law in europe wouldn't be
enough for european developers to stop having to worry. It's still
messy if it gets international. So if you just put stuff online and
there is a chance for americans to download and use it, better not use
one-click shopping, browser plugins or aspect-oriented programming.
From: Marc Battyani
Subject: Re: Stop making web sites! (and programming...)
Date: 
Message-ID: <bo40tn$ngt@library1.airnews.net>
"Marco Antoniotti" <·······@cs.nyu.edu> wrote
>
> >
> > All this is ridiculous.And now, thanks to a Arlene McCarthy, a British
Member
> > of the European Parliament (http://www.arlenemccarthy.labour.co.uk/) we
have
> > software patents in Europe too. :(
>
> Well, reading the web site of the MEP (well, she is a subject of Her
> Majesty :) what does the 'E' really stand for? :) ) it would seem that
> the EU legislation (which, AFAIK is not completed yet) would disqualify
> some of the patents you mentioned in your list.

Yes, I have received several emails about this.
The newspaper where I read an article about this was not precise enough.
There have been some very important restrictions. More infos here :
swpat.ffii.org (Thanks to Martin for the pointer)
So it's rather good news. At least in Europe we can still write software for
some time.

Marc
From: David Golden
Subject: Re: Stop making web sites! (and programming...)
Date: 
Message-ID: <235b265c.0311021650.5e47474d@posting.google.com>
"Marc Battyani" <·············@fractalconcept.com> wrote in message news:<··········@library1.airnews.net>...
> All this is ridiculous.And now, thanks to a Arlene McCarthy, a British Member
> of the European Parliament (http://www.arlenemccarthy.labour.co.uk/) we have
> software patents in Europe too. :(
>

It IS utterly ridiculous, but AFAIK we don't quite exactly have them
yet? That is to say, it's still not too late to do something about the
issue, the first reading the European Parliament in the end was less
terrible than it might have been thanks to concerted efforts by the
FFII and other organisations.

PleaseX1000 if you're in Europe, read up on http://swpat.ffii.org/,
this is NOT an issue affecting just open source people, despite the
misrepresentations by Arlene et al.
 
ANY European Software Business, closed or open source, that has built
itself  on software copyright can find itself directly undermined by
legal attack via some absurd patent or other.  Patents threaten
basically every developer, proprietary or open source, not actually
employed by MS, IBM or the defense industry (which tends to be granted
get-out-free card with respect to patents).

The introduction of software patents would be "welfare for patent
lawyers", really, at great cost to real innovation.