Re: Patents

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

I wish the SPI luck in curbing the flood of invalid software patents,
but valid software patents do the same kind of harm, and the SPI can't
do anything about them.  The SPI says that software patents would be
beneficial, or acceptable, if only the system were properly
administered.  I don't agree.

When the Software Patent Institute was begun, they tried to get me and
the LPF involved in helping them.  We declined, because we felt that
getting too involved in an attempt to "make the patent system work as
specified" would undermine our opposition to the system.  Also they
wanted to use our names in ways that would lead people to think that
we agreed with their ideas about the nature of the problem and how
to solve it.