ross@spam.ua.oz.au (Ross Williams) (05/21/91)
Call For Discussion on the Creation of comp.disclose
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Author : Ross Williams.
Date : 20-May-1991.
Proposed Newsgroup:
Name : comp.disclose
Charter : A place to officially disclose technical information.
Unmoderated
Discussion:
Many people have become concerned with the problems caused by the
increasing scope of software patents. Following some landmark
decisions, the US patent office is now granting patents for trivial
software techniques such as overlapping windows and highlighted text.
As a result, programming is fast becoming an activity jammed by legal
processes.
Amazing though it is, there are now software patents covering:
* Scrolling with multiple subwindows.
* Exclusive OR highlighted text.
* Natural order spreadsheet recalculation.
* Use of backing store to store overlapping parts of windows.
These are just the beginning. Soon, it seems, it will be impossible to
write a large computer program without accidentally violating several
dozen patents.
One of the reasons why this situation has arisen is because Computer
Science has a rich culture of ideas which are so obvious that no one
has ever bothered to publish them. Indeed, no journal editor would
ever accept papers describing such "obvious" ideas as exclusive OR to
highlight text or backing store for overlapping windows. Similarly,
the ideas might not appear in textbooks. As a result, many obvious and
well-known ideas have become patent targets.
Some organizations, such as the League for Programming Freedom, are
attempting to resolve the problem through political channels. This is
undoubtably the best long-term solution. However, the creation of an
"official" electronic forum for the disclosure of technical
information would provide a partial short term solution.
Once the newsgroup was created, programmers around the world could
post descriptions of software techniques that they have seen or are
using. The effect would be to immediately move an enormous quantity of
previously unpublished software ideas into the public domain before
the patent pirates get around to filing for them.
The newsgroup would serve to simplify the public disclosure process
for ordinary users and would provide an honourable place to describe
techniques too obvious or urgent for publication.
I place the following points up for discussion:
* If such a newsgroup were created, would a posting to the
newsgroup describing a technique constitute, from a legal point of
view, a full public disclosure? Can any lawyers out there comment
on this?
* If such a newsgroup were created, are there any individuals or
organizations that would undertake to archive the group in a
secure manner and make it available to those involved in lawsuits
concerning patents? Without this, the newsgroup would be useless.
* Is comp.disclose the best name for the group?
* One hidden danger is that once the newsgroup is established,
lawyers attempting to demonstrate that an idea is non-obvious
might argue that the absence of a posting covering an idea is
evidence for the idea's non-obviousness. In this sense, the more
thorough the newsgroup is, the more of a danger it could be.
Further information about the problems with software patents can be
obtained from:
The League for Programming Freedom
1 Kendall Square #143
PO Box 9171
Cambridge MA 02139
Net: league@prep.ai.mit.edu
Phone: +1 (617) 243-4091
Document: "Against Software Patents".
Document: "Against User Interface Copyright".
I look forward to discussion on this proposal,
Ross Williams
ross@spam.ua.oz.au