Comment Articles

The patent nuclear weapon

John Carroll ZDNet.com

Published: 29 Aug 2003 18:09 BST

Conclusion
Markets tend to work around boulders in the economic stream, because modern markets are dynamic entities that respond to hindrances like cars moving around a stalled truck on the freeway. That doesn't mean that the market wouldn't work more efficiently if the hindrance weren't there.

Governments play a very important role in a market economy. They define the stage upon which economic actors play. They supply laws governing property and business contracts, laws to enforce transparent accounting standards, and laws governing capital flows. Governments provide the structure within which economic activity takes place, and certain structures lead to more profitable and efficient economies than others.

Algorithm and business process patents are instances of a less efficient economic structure. Markets have managed to respond, but the resulting balance isn't more efficient than a market that didn't allow such legal stakes to be placed on abstract ideas in the first place.

As a final point of note, keep in mind that the only reason IBM is defending Linux is because it suits their business interests. As Mr. Perens pointed out at Linuxworld, however, many of IBM's business interests, specifically, the one's bound up in IBM's ever growing pile of software patents, run COUNTER to the interests of open source. IBM might be fighting on open source's behalf today, but what's to ensure that will remain true in the future?

I suggested in the past that SCO's actions reveal the conflicts inherent in trying to meld a development model based on shared code with a business model based on maximising revenue. That will remain the case after armies of lawyers have picked over SCO's sun-bleached bones, so long as companies are entities created for the express purpose of making a profit.

SCO's case centred around copyright, because that's the only thing they could reasonably base a claim on. In contrast, I bet IBM could make a similar claim to Linux IP, and base it entirely on patents. The only thing stopping them is that they make plenty of money without resorting to such extremes.

Let's hope that IBM is always so profitable.