PUBLIC MARKS with tags essay & software

He explains the economic reality and moral justification for free software, and its role in the struggle for human freedom historically and in society at large.

Eben Moglen is professor of law at Columbia University Law School. He serves without fee as General Counsel of the Free Software Foundation. You can read more of his writing at moglen.law.columbia.edu. These remarks were the keynote address at the University of Maine Law School's Fourth Annual Technology and Law Conference, Portland, Maine, June 29, 2003.

The simple question “what’s wrong with software patents?” stirs up controversy and divides the IT industry into two camps like no other. Every group has their own ideology about software patents. Those who don’t like them claim that they are anti-competitive, that they are tools used by industry giants to crush free and open software, that they are bad for innovation, that they are monopolies, etc. Those who like them claim that they are simply units of intellectual property, to be traded like any other commodity.

我不展望，我只提希望。我的希望是基于我的失望。有人说，技术是双面刃，可我看到坏的那一面太多，好的那一面太少，所以我希望，2006年让技术真的成为双面刃，好的那一面至少不要太弱于坏的那一面。