Software patents
The debate over software patents is one of the oldest political themes on this website. It includes curious historical cases as well as fundamental questions about whether and how software-related ideas should be patentable.
Open source and interoperability
Free software is not merely a licensing issue. Projects such as Samba show how reverse engineering, open interfaces and competition are connected. Today, this question has gained new relevance through the debate about digital sovereignty.
Geistiges-Eigentum.eu
On my website geistiges-eigentum.eu, I critically examine the concept commonly grouped under the label “intellectual property”. A central idea is that intangible goods such as ideas, texts, music, software or technical concepts cannot simply be equated with physical objects: taking away a physical object deprives its previous possessor of it, whereas an idea or piece of information can be copied and used by several people at the same time.
The site therefore examines not only legal rights but also the language and political assumptions associated with the umbrella term “intellectual property”. Topics include:
- differences between tangible and intangible property,
- patents and especially software patents,
- copyright and authors’ rights,
- open source, the public domain and Creative Commons,
- limits and social consequences of exclusive rights,
- political arguments and public debates about knowledge, culture and innovation.
My point is not the simplistic claim that intellectual creations should never be protected. The crucial questions are which rights make sense in which field, whom they benefit, whom they exclude, and how they affect innovation, competition, culture and the free exchange of knowledge.