Chaining Open Source Software: The Case Against Software Patents :: Technology Essays

Chaining Open Source Software: The Case Against Software Patents Software has become an integral part of our society. The economic success of our country depends on the success of the software industry. ``Open source'' software, software which users are allowed to modify and redistribute, is a very important part of the software industry. Unfortunately, the increased use of software patents threatens the future of this type of software. The importance of open source software is evident in the number of people who make use of it. Most users do not realize that they make use of open source software because much of this software lies on servers. Many Internet Service Providers have Linux, FreeBSD, or another open source operating system on their systems to provide reliable dial-up service to customers. Most email goes through at least one sendmail server or some other open source email server. BIND is the most widely used software for DNS services---the services that translate server names such as ``www.gnu.org'' to a numerical IP address. According to a recent survey by E-Soft of almost 1.5 million web servers, over fifty-percent of web servers run Apache, an open source web server (``Web''). Everyone should be concerned about any possible hindrances to open source software. Without this type of software many services would not be widely available today. It is also probable that a decentralized worldwide network such as the Internet would not exist if open source software was not such a force. Software patents have hindered the proliferation of open source software in the past and they could easily damage the future of open source software and the rest of the software industry. Supporters of software patents claim that the involvement of the patent system is needed to provide incentive to innovate new software technology. They believe that the developers of new software technology have a right to a monopoly on the technology as it falls under the category of ``intellectual property.'' Many companies that support software patents have large investments in existing patent portfolios. This includes companies such as IBM, Unisys and Microsoft. They collect royalties from their patents which supporters of software patents feel they are entitled to. Supporters of software patents believe that recent advancements in the strength of software patent protection give ``a powerful new legal tool to software developers'' (``High Court''). Their belief is that the software industry is just suffering ``growing pains'' and should endure while the legal system clarifies law.