Patents and Free Software

This is not a simple question. It has been presented to the EU a bill which will allow software patents, as it is already possible for all inventions. Software are not a simple object: it is a product including developers' ideas, knowledge and research, which can be lately reused to develop new more and more complex applications.

On the one hand there are the supporters of Free Software, that is people dealing with  programmes, applications and operative systems following a philosophy based on collaboration and sharing of knowledge. On the other hand there multinationals, as Microsoft, which use "proprietary" software, that is whose source code, developed by programmers working for companies, is completely closed. Nobody knows how it is build up, nobody can work on it to improve it or to correct it, except developers themselves, and these products are sold at an exorbitant price.

Otherwise, talking about Free Software, the source code is open, at developers disposal and so under the control of a Community of developers which immediately improves, updates and corrects software. One of the advantages is all is free.

But what does this mean?

A free developer deciding to write some code, will have to verify all the existent patents and check if its code has got patented elements. Obviously this operation would be an exorbitant expense, that any developers or small enterprises could bear. The result would be the failure of Small and Middle-seized companies, to big multinationals advantages.

Working with Open Source applications and technology, Redomino supports anti-patent campaign. It's not only a question of falling out with multinationals, but to support each one freedom to develop its own ideas and to improve a product.

For more information:

• http://noepatents.eu.org/
• http://www.economic-majority.com/konf050629/
• http://patinfo.ffii.org/material/webdemo-2005/index.it.html