Online petitions down at the moment

Summary: With well over 12 thousand signatures, the petition to eliminate software patents is now a top 10 plea

ON a couple of occasions so far we have promoted the petition against software patents in the United States. This site's current top goal is to remove software patents; the rest of the goals will follow and be fulfilled as a result, including the assured triumph of software freedom in more and more areas (of operation) and economies, including the US where GNU/Linux adoption is relatively low.

Software patents have been an artificial elevator of software monopolies, so it is not surprising that firms like Oracle, Apple, and Microsoft use these for leverage, expelling/blocking/suing new entrants and creating deterrence to those who dare enter. More and more people seem to have caught up and realised how this plot goes. According to this report, "Anti-software-patent petition makes White House's top 10".

Good, but this part of the site is down at the moment (see screenshot above).

Also playing an important role in the push for reform are some of Bessen's studies [1, 2, 3] , which crop up in all sorts of places and provide ammunition against today's patent system. In separate recent studies, Bessen showed the drawbacks of patent trolls (NPEs) and software patents. Here is a new article about the recent 'reform' which did not actually reform anything that needed reforming:

Most Silicon Valley companies were opposed to the patent reform law that President Obama signed last week. Some argue that the America Invents Act favors large megacorps over smaller companies, and could dampen innovation in the tech sector.

[...]

Patent Trolls. The new law does almost nothing to fight the "patent troll" problem, according to the attorneys we talked to. The good news is, companies are no longer able to patent incremental improvements in technology or processes as easily as they used to, thanks to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling in KSR International Vs. Teleflex, which basically put the kibosh on patents that are too "obvious." (Also, Conley says that people used to think "business method patents" would "end Western Civilization as we know it," but "courts usually refuse to enforce them on the grounds of obviousness."

Temporary maintenance issues aside, the petition to President Obama is still open and those looking for an opportunity to give people a voice are also being informed by The Hill, which gets read by a lot of US citizens. It says that this petition exists, which is good enough a start. We need to eliminate software patents in the US before they go global. ⬆