Transcript of a talk presented by Richard Stallman on 2002-03-25 at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, organized by the Foundation for Information Policy Research.
Software patents -- more than copyright laws, commercial software companies, and uninformed legislators -- are the biggest threat to the future of free software.
Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure analysis on TRIPS and Software Patents. European patent authorities often cite the TRIPs treaty as a reason for making computer programs and business methods patentable and for making such patents enforcable in the most indecent ways. FFII states that this reasoning is fallacious and easy to refute. It's analaysis also reveals that it appears that the European patent establishment itself is systematically violating the TRIPs treaty.
An editorial that clarifies the point that it is software patents which are harmful and not copyrights which both proprietary and FOSS sofware are built on. Copyrighting allows people to benefit from their labours, but software patents allow the companies with the largest legal departments to benefit from everyone else's work.
