Imagine if Windows Media Player was set up to charge your credit card 50p every time you played a track. What would you do? you would use another Media player except that with Software Patents legally enforceable there would be no players that didn't charge you. So you learn to program, and you write your own program to avoid these charges, if you get caught you would end up in court being done for patent infringement. I am not saying this particular scenario will happen, its just one of many that could.

Software Patents harm the development of software. If you were to design a new codec tomorrow that compresses audio with almost no loss of quality, you may find that someone already owns the patent, or worse patents your technology. There have been many cases in the US where patents have been granted on an already existing technology. The Patent Office is supposed to check for what is called previous art, but with a vast number of projects out there some get overlooked. In fact the US Patent Office has only just announced plans to check Open Source Projects in its search for previous art. Do a google search for Software Patent Litigation +US, you will find there are over 8 million pages with those terms on there. Granted some of those are duplicates, and some explain the US laws regarding the issue. But the point is there is an endless number of legal battles being fought about software patents. This is all very well for big companies that can afford to fight these battles, but what if you get taken to court for Patent Infringement could you afford to fight the case? If not then sadly you are deemed as guilty because you cant present a defence. Before you are too sure you could find the money if needs be, you may be unaware of the process of these litigation cases. In the US a case is presented, and then Discovery time is given, in which the two parties examine records from the other to prove/disprove the case. Many many cases are dragged out by an incredibly lengthy discovery period. In the case of SCO vs IBM SCO has persistently asked for more and more discovery. That period is finally over but it has taken over a year. Could you afford to pay a lawyer for this? Let alone pay a lawyer capable of fighting the elite that Redmond has to offer?

The Software Patents Directive was largely backed by Ireland the last time, and as many will tell you their government receives a lot of "support" from Microsoft. Interestingly enough when South Africa was considering the benefit of Software Patents MS bought a large amount of Patents before the law was even passed. It is just fortunate for the South Africans that the law was rejected, otherwise they would now be in the state the US finds itself in.

For Open Source software patents pose an even greater issue. Projects such as Mplayer and Amsn will be unable to continue, they would be infringing to many software patents. It would mean that there would suddenly be a great many things you could no longer do on Open Source Software (legally at least). Even putting these issues aside, Software Patents could harm the education process in two ways

1) The schools currently use a lot of media as an aide to education. If software patents are enforceable then the schools will have no choice in which Operating System or Software they use. We have seen how the cost of Windows jumps at every version, this additional cost will either mean that the schools can't afford it, and so harm your childs education, or the schools may decide they can afford it which means more money out of your taxes, mayb even a tax rise.

2) Open Source currently means there is a good way for people to learn about technologies. If someone wnats to learn about media players then they can download the source code of an open source project, have a look at the code and work out how it all works. This in turn can help with getting a job in the future as it means less training. If Open Source cannot support projects in many areas because of Software Patents, then this avenue is lost to those who may use it.

Either way, do you want this occurring because of a law that presents absolutely no benefit to you? In fact the only way it can conceivably effect you is to make things a lot worse. At the moment you have choice, you may not necessarily use it, but you do have a choice between a great number of software projects, whether proprietary or Open Source. If Software Patents become legally enforceable then this choice will evaporate over night. Once Software Patents become legally enforceable it will be incredibly hard to take it back.

Though I do not advocate illegal copying of Music/DVDs I should point out that once software patents are legally enforceable you are unlikely to be able to do this. DVDDecrypter for example is only currently legal because it is only supposed to be used to back up your existing collection. But the media companies know full well what it is used for, and there is no way they will grant the makers of DVDDecrypter a license. The same goes for DVDShrink, a great number of CD Rippers, and I am sure they will find a way to stop the Peer to Peer networks as well.

I personally will be continuing to use Open Source Software regardless of what happens. Microsoft and Apple just do not offer a solution that is suitable for my needs and wants. If I have to break the law to continue to use the system I want then I will, and I am sure there are a great number of other Linux users who feel the same way.

The question of course is what can you do to prevent this? As I mentioned before, this is not going to any sort of vote as far as I know. Not being a lawyer or polititian I don't know if this can be changed, so I would recommend writing to your MEP. Explain your concerns, the effect it could have on the european community as a whole and that you would be interested to know what can be done about the issue. For God Sake don't be abusive though, these people are here to help you. Their job is to take your views to the European Parliament. You could also sign the Software Patents Petition here.

If anyone thinks I have missed any of the facts out, or got some wrong please feel free to email me at the address on the front page, and I will do my best to change it as soon as possible. I would also be interested to hear feedback from anyone with a legal or political background.

Fingers crossed we can stop this dead in its tracks, but for now wish us luck because the entire Open Source Community is going to need it.

Shifty_ben