Bonum Certa Men Certa

Beyond Shameful: Microsoft and IBM Lobbyist David Kappos Uses COVID-19 Lies to Push for Software Patents From the Back Door, Undermining What Courts Have Determined

IBM and Nazi flag
Image sourced from "The Hidden Nazi History of IBM and how they chose profit over morality"



Summary: IBM continues its evil work; instead of promoting software freedom it is lobbying via numerous fronts (IPO, Kappos and others) to restore software patenting in the US, harming programming professionals everywhere and benefiting nobody but monopolists

THE EVIL work to undermine 35 U.S.C. €§ 101 has not stopped. David Kappos from IBM (he had worked there before Obama put him at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and he then worked again for IBM as a lobbyist with USPTO connections/'creds') is at it again and it's particularly ugly because he's exploiting the deaths of over a million people to push a truly nasty agenda, which would only lead to more people dying.



"It makes those of us who actually write code (unlike marketing giant IBM) and perpetually suffer from software patents want to just boycott IBM altogether."The headline of his piece is something like Bringing Back Software Patents is "Literally a Matter of Life and Death" (he means to say that people will die unless there are software patents) and Hacker News has outlined that as "Kappos propose to restore software patents via Covid stimulus bill," quoting him as saying that: "That’s why Congress must act now to pass legislation to reverse the Supreme Court decisions that created the mess in the first place. In fact, Sens. Chris Coons and Thom Tillis already proposed a very viable blueprint for such legislation, which now can be included in the next coronavirus stimulus bill to restore predictability and stability. If passed, we’ll see a return to the strong incentive effect of the patent system that will engender the private sector investment we desperately need to finally get ahead of the pandemic treadmill we find ourselves on."

IBM and HitlerFor those who missed it, Coons was literally bribed by law firms to push this bill. This should be considered a crime, trying to overturn the SCOTUS decision without even a court's involvement. By bribery.

If it weren’t for Hitler, IBM would be nothing today. To see IBM's taskforces and lobbyists trying to leverage COVID-19 for this sort of malicious agenda is beyond disgraceful. It makes those of us who actually write code (unlike marketing giant IBM) and perpetually suffer from software patents want to just boycott IBM altogether.

Recent Techrights' Posts

They're Very Jealous of Richard Stallman and His Freedom (or Simple Lifestyle)
Jealousy is toxic because it can cause rational people to act irrationally and even severely harm themselves
Akira Urushibata on GNU coreutils
new message
There's Nothing Funny About Lawbreaking
There's plenty of room in society for humour, but "hacking" the state by breaking laws isn't cool or hip
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: Intangible Stuff and Slop Issues
Links for the day
 
Microsofters Have, in Effect, Attempted Extrajudicial Action Against Us
Courts and Judges (or Masters) don't exist to facilitate this kind of "bro" culture
UK High Court Masters Are Not Your Jesters, Microsoft
Judges aren't there for "funny" spectacles, they're there to act as arbiters in critical cases, not SLAPPs
Links 27/05/2025: Mass Layoffs at Volvo and More Evidence of 'AI' (Slop) Being a Passing Fad
Links for the day
The Code of Conduct (CoC) Gaslighting Phenomenon
There are still many people and projects foolish enough to outsource their labour to Microsoft via GitHub
Anouk Rozestraten (Deputy Director) Appears to Have Left the Free Software Foundation
Let's hope Rozestraten is still using and promoting Free software
More Mass Layoffs Coming Soon to Microsoft, Just a Question of When and How Many
Numbers from Washington were close to 5% and judging by prior rumours, it would be 5% + 5% (total 10%) at a later month
Links 27/05/2025: Bikes, Ideal Computers, and BYO
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 26, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 26, 2025
Richard Stallman's Milan Talk (Public Presentation) Was Packed, Video Available Soon
Looks like they even ran out of seats
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part I: Complaints to IRS or USDOJ Needed
If enough people do it, this will be more effective, more so if people who are based in the US do it
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Lobbying and the OSI's Status at Stake
At the end we plan to summarise all the issues in one very long article
Breaking Into Other People's Devices Without Authorisation Isn't "Funny" or "Research"
“Chaos was the law of nature; order was the dream of man.”
The Issue Isn't the Internet, the Issue is How People Are Taught to Use or Misuse It
The Web is circling down the drain. The Internet is not.
A Healed Reputation of a Movement's Leader and His Robust Message
The more aggressively you push against resistors, the more credibility they will gain
Links 26/05/2025: Deletions from Microsoft's GitHub, Telegram Blocked in Vietnam
Links for the day
Linux Released Last Night and There's Already LLM Slop With Slop Images
BetaNoise does not seem to mind this anymore
Links 26/05/2025: Walmart Layoffs and DRM Dumpster Fire ('Old' Fire TV Devices Lose Netflix Access)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: USB Camera Viewer and Fantasy Life
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 25, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 25, 2025
Links 25/05/2025: 15 Years of UK Legal Aid Applicant Data Grabbed and 2 Billion Discord Messages Leaked Online
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Farming and OpenBSD 7.7 on Acer Aspire ES 15
Links for the day
Fighting for Freedom is Much Better Than Fighting for Money
If life is about accumulation of money, then people will be "busy making money" till they die prematurely (with nothing to do with this money)
The Microsoft SLAPP Dossiers
A rather likely outcome is, they'll lose their licence to operate
Links 25/05/2025: Harvard’s Troubles and New Openwashing Examples
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Whales and Battery Replacement
Links for the day
Links 25/05/2025: Climate Action Ridiculed and "Tesla Executive Admits That Self-Driving Is Going Nowhere Fast"
Links for the day
The Next Two Phases of Our Open Source Initiative (OSI) Series
Whatever people used to think about the OSI is no longer applicable and its current acronym is a misleading misnomer
Richard Stallman Has Barely Changed
Collecting "estate" "assets"? That's not "success" in the eyes of Dr. Stallman
Public Talk by Richard Stallman (RMS) Tomorrow
Still advertised
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Konsole Layout Changes and Capitulation to Surveillance World
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 24, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 24, 2025