We are working on a brand new version of the game! If you want to stay informed, read our blog and register for our mailing list.
Bill: No Software Patents
Details
Submitted by[?]: Freedom Party
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: February 2139
Description[?]:
| Intellectual property is an entirely artificial concept and shares little, if anything, in common with tangible property. This is especially true of the economic foundations of private property systems. Private (tangible) property is intrinsically scarce and the whole point of economics is the efficient allocation of scarce resources. Ideas, in contrast, have no natural scarcity and therefore do not need to have a property system created simply to give them an artificial scarcity. In fact, the reverse is true: an idea increases in value the wider it is spread. Also, patents are state-enforced legal monopolies. Monopolies are always bad, and legally mandated monopolies even worse. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The patenting of software techniques.
Old value:: Software patents can be obtained from the patent office.
Current: Software patents can be obtained from the patent office.
Proposed: Software designs, techniques, formulae and algorithms cannot be patented.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 00:48:42, November 10, 2005 CET | From | Conservative Party | To | Debating the No Software Patents |
| Message | We disagree with our compatriots at the Freedom party in this area, as the point of a patent is to allow the designer to gain the benefits of spending research without competition, provided that he opens up the design to the world after ten or so years. We find that software and the like should be protected just as any other investment should. More to the point, we'd rather use patents to give a temporary legal monopoly to a company instead of forcing them to use non-disclosure agreements to deny access permanently to the software to third parties forever. |
subscribe to this discussion - unsubscribe
Voting
| Vote | Seats | |||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 260 | |||||
| no |
Total Seats: 339 | |||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
| Random fact: Moderation reserves the discretion to declare RP laws invalid if the players supporting them are doing so in an excessively confrontational way. |
| Random quote: "I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that's the America millions of Americans believe in. That's the America I love." - Mitt Romney |