Content area
Full Text
"He who receives and idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me." - Thomas Jefferson
Whether software patents are ethically wrong or not is a matter of philosophy. However, even if you don't believe patenting software is wrong from an ethical standpoint, you must agree that if a thing is not working as intended, and if it is in fact operating to the contrary of what it's intended to do, then that thing must either be fixed or thrown out.
We strongly believe software patents are unethical, but they also fail miserably to work as intended. Worse yet, they are detrimental to the game industry and to the software industry in general. We fear software patents will spell the end of freedom and innovation in game programming if we continue on our current course.
We hope that after reading this short article and following up with the references yourself, you will come to the same conclusion we have, and will join us in trying to dismantle the incredibly broken patent system.
Intent vs. Reality
Software patents do not work as intended on a number of levels. Patents - limited-time exclusive rights to an invention - are allowed under the U.S. Constitution as long as they "promote the progress of science and useful arts." Unfortunately, software patents do not accomplish this goal in practice, and...