SCO v. Novell: Why We Don’t Need Software Patents
So I go on vacation, and look what happens — Novell owns the Unix IP after all, leaving SCO a dead man walking.
There is quite a bit of commentary out there, to which I will merely add this thought: this is one more example of a severely broken patent system. As I’ve said before, I don’t buy in to the FSF’s free software ideology for a second, but I do not think software requires patent protection for a very pragmatic reason: software patents are harming innovation, and the only rationale for patents is to spur innovation. There are no fundamental property rights in question here, just as there is no fundamental right to software freedom. This is a question of balancing society’s ability to take and build upon others’ inventions versus the desire to provide innovators financial rewards to incentivize invention. Nothing more.
And with regards to software, this balance is clearly out of whack, as shown by the lawsuit masquerading as a public company that was SCO. For quite a few years, SCO’s only viable business has been its extortion racket based on spurious legal claims. Of course this extortion scheme has impeded others’ ability to create business value, thereby subverting the whole purpose of the patent system. And while we all knew how this would ultimately end up, it’s taken many years already, and probably will drag out for several more.
This is a case study in why software patent protection should be eliminated.