Where Software Patents and Free Software Collide

Like many of you, the idea of software patents makes my stomach churn. Not only that, but the USPTO grants software patents the way a hooker... well, you can see where this is going. It's not that I don't believe in due credit, or want to push my Free Software ideas on everyone, I just think the system is seriously flawed and Free Software is being unnecessarily hurt by it.

There are so many arguments why software patents are bad and don't get along with free software. Here are a few examples:

• Software (and ultimately ideas) is not a commodity and cannot be bought or sold, and as such should not be patented. This is a very strict Free Software idea and not widely accepted by the non-believers.
  
• Patentable ideas in software are too abstract and wide reaching, making them unnecessary and too difficult to track and enforce. This is a pretty solid argument. To a programmer, there are only so many ways you can do certain things, and some of these patented ideas restrict some basic operations. It just gets silly.
  
• Software is in such a growth state that restrictive patents would restrict a crucial growth in society. There are many instances where the government has stepped in (in this case it would be out) to protected growth industries, and well, this is one of them.
  
• Free Software is a right, much like free speech, and applying patent law to it is unethical. Wouldn't it suck if someone could patent the chant "hey ho, we won't go!"
  
• And there may be instances where software patents would apply, particularly between businesses, but there is no reason why patented ideas in free software would diminish the value for the patent holder since free software is not profiting from the use of patents. And this counts for business models based on Free Software, since they are not selling the software, they are selling services related to the software. It is as if you were to give out remote control's that had parts governed by patents and selling a manual on how to use it.
  

In then end I came to one conclusion that I think may warrant further debate: Software patents should not apply to Free Software. Businesses are still protected from each other, which is what really matters. And Free Software is still allowed to grow and prosper. What do you think?