A Letter to the Editor of Western Mall: Patent is an Anti-Social Act

by Maurice McCarthy -- Maurice.McCarthy at bluewater.com

The views expressed on this page are not necessarily the views of the FFII, and are the sole responsibility of the author identified above

Introduction and Motivation

It has dawned on me that what has happened with patent is that the idea of it is the master of "econocratic" political thinking. Yet, rightly, the person should be master of the idea and not vice versa. They are slaves to an entombment of their own making. The idea of patent has become an institution which is looked upon as an unalterable fact of social reality. They think, "We must always have patent." Whereas they have a fairly good case for now the 'must always' is flat wrong.

Since one can only react to reality in 2 ways, emotively or by bringing the objectivity of thought to bear upon it, Then they need smacking hard in the feelings. The purpose of which is to so shatter their illusion that it causes a rethink.

I have decided to adopt "Patent as an Anti-Social Act" as my personal slogan and make no apology whatsoever for the inflammatory letter below. The Western Mail is the morning paper of the Principality of Wales and I've sent it there because the last of Lord Sainsbury's workshops on the meaning of 'technical contribution' will be held in Cardiff where the paper is published.

If I can find an email address for The Big Issue, a weekly magazine which the homeless sell on the streets of Britain, then I'll send it there too. Because of the internet they have international links in South Africa and other places. The whole point is to run the idea that something insidious is happening in the EU (again) but this time it is Britain who is pushing it.

The Letter

• Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 03:35 PM To: 'readers at wme.co.uk' Patent is an Anti-Social Act

  Maurice McCarthy 22 March 2005

If you were in your right mind would you take a knife and carve up your own brain? Substitute patent for 'knife' and software for 'brain' and this is what the British government is promoting in Europe. Amongst the Welsh MEP's only Jill Evans of Plaid Cymru seems to have any inkling of the dangers in what is happening.

A European patent costs a small fortune to buy and maintain, takes 6 years to grant and can last for 20 years. My computer is now 8 years old and it is so out of date that it is two orders of magnitude below the processing power and storage space of 'entry level' computers today. If the hardware moves this fast then it is obvious that the software is even more fleet of foot. Patent would be a leg-iron on the software economy because it builds upon what has already been achieved. It evolves - and assumes that it has the right to all prior achievement. (Imagine trying to evolve a human being if someone put a patent on growing the cortex or standing upright.)

The internet is clearly The medium the foreseeable future, just as TV is now. The freedom of the media is the most critical political guarantee of democracy. Patent would clearly destroy the freedom of this medium, carve its integrity to pieces.

Worst of all software is a form of human knowledge. It is one thing, a single network which shadows the internet. Depriving people of the exercise of this knowledge is an affront to human dignity and therefore an attack on every culture in the world, an attack on culture in general.

Anti-economic, anti-democratic and anti-humanitarian the Software Patent directive is the most pernicious piece of legislation imaginable. Patent is supposed to be a concession by the public for the greater social good. Social good? Social evil!

(Friday 8th April sees the last of Lord Sainsbury's workshops on defining what 'technical contribution' means with respect to software patents. It is being held in St. David's Hall, Cardiff at 13:30.)

Appendix

The Welsh word for Wales is Cymru ("Cum-ree") which literally translates as the Communists; "those who hold things in common". Since it comes from a time when property was universally common property this has always amazed me.

Manuel Castells has apparently written three tomes on the 'network society' and a quote was given from him as, "It is not Big Brother you should worry about but Little Sister." To me, patent on software IS Little Sister, the Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease of the new Logos. Interesting too that the best neurological and cognitive science descriptions of consciousness are as a network organisation of the firing in the brain. No longer do they look for consciousness or the self in a specific neural correlate. Similarly if the world is One World then software must be one network.