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Software Patents
I am writing in reply to John Appleyard's letter (Issue #83, August 2008) regarding software patents. In his letter, Mr Appleyard is concerned about the impossibility of filing patents for algorithms in the UK.
Algorithms (and by extension computer programs of any kind) are series of exact instructions to achieve an objective. Computer programmers issue these instructions in a computer language (C, Perl, or even Visual Basic) not because it is the best way to describe an algorithm, but because it is the only way we can explain these steps to a machine.
Any computing algorithm is perfectly representable by using a natural language (English, Swahili, Russian…), so a software patent is tantamount to limiting freedom of speech. Software patents stop people sharing and expressing ideas, which is the very foundation of culture and the scientific method.
[...]
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