Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 20 July 2010 13:26
IT Policy -
Government Tech Policy
Page 1 of 2
Close on the heels of New Zealand declaring that software would not be patentable, a Melbourne free software advocate and developer has drafted a petition to press for the same to happen in Australia.
Melbourne developer Ben Sturmfels
(below) is soliciting signatures for the
petition which, he says, will be personally delivered to Senator Kim Carr, the minister for innovation, Industry, science and research in the current Labor government.
The petition has been launched at a time when the federal government is reviewing the scope of patent law and Sturmfels says it is the right time to push for abolition of software patents. It also comes at the start of a federal election campaign, with Australia going to the polls on August 21.
Last week, New Zealand
announced that it would not be making any changes to its Patents Bill which is moving through parliament. Wellington has decided that inventions which have embedded software can be patented, a stance which was welcomed by the New Zealand Computer Society.
In the petition Sturmfels says he has highlighted the negative effects that software patents have on the software industry and society in general.
"The patent system is meant to benefit society, but allowing software to be patentable has created an expensive and dangerous imbalance. I encourage all members of the software industry to sign this letter," he said in a media release.
Sturmfels says that as a student he attended a talk given by the visionary Richard M. Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and the GNU Project, on the threat of software patents. He now has an additional reason to be wary of software patents as they would be a direct threat to his business and to the businesses of his customers.
