Bonum Certa Men Certa

Bastian Best is Still Wrong and Dishonest About Software Patents

Video download link | md5sum 6a1fe35c0475566fe721a002f28c8a50 Worst Explanation by Best Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: A quick rebuttal to abysmal arguments in favour of software patents, courtesy of people who neither code nor disclose a very obvious conflict of interest (they profit from promotion of such illegal patents, helped by crooked EPO presidencies that violate the European Patent Convention with impunity)

Having campaigned online for ages (about 20 years) against software patents, I've long noticed Bastian Best [1, 2], an attorney who shamelessly promoted them while working for law firms I strongly disliked. They're software patent profiteers and they spread false 'news' about the UPC (also what one can rightly call "disinformation" -- a lot worse than misinformation).



This video of Mr. Best mentions Techrights, so it merits a quick rebuttal (which is very easy to do because what he says is utterly false).

Mr. Best has long been an apologist for illegal EPO policies from Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos because he's looking for profit from European software patents and has long marketed himself as such (even by 'hijacking' hashtags/usernames formed by opponents of software patents, i.e. groups which actually write code*).

"Free (or “open source”) software is a matter of copyrights, not patents."Nowadays, having started a one-man shop, Mr. Best is selling himself as the 'expert' in getting such illegal patents (disguised as "Hey Hi" or similar nonsense while Campinos subverts examination guidelines to blur the gaps). In the video above he's pretending that the vast majority of software developers opposing software patents -- as per many polls -- isn't a real thing based on anecdotes or the rare subset** (few who actually do pursue such a thing).

I can haz patentz on the maths?In a subtle or implicit fashion he's also namecalling or suggesting it is "extreme" to oppose such patents... or that developers oppose patents in general (that's a red herring).

One real sloppy argument (misframing the debate) says that "open source"*** and patents are opposites when in fact that's like comparing cats to cars. Software patents hurt all software developers, including developers of proprietary software.

And "while the statement about hurting all developers is accurate," an associate notes, "the scope of the damage is actually much wider. Because patents govern usage it is not just the developers who are affected."

"Indeed the case might even be made that developers are less affected. The people really hurt by the software patents are those that wish to actually use the software, again because software patents govern usage and not distribution."

Free (or "open source") software is a matter of copyrights, not patents. In any event, the video above highlights how much of the very basics he gets wrong; it's like he doesn't know what he's talking about! People pay for this? We suppose that given the unqualified aristocracy -- or kakistocracy -- running the EPO (very bare comprehension of patents) it should not be too shocking that it's facilitating a lobby or lawyers, liars, and fake patent attorneys who illegally (fraudulently) claim to be European patent attorneys. ____ * It is my vague recollection that he took the namespace #swpats or #swpat in Twitter about 13 years ago, maybe the username/s too.

** Vocal proponents of such patents, especially when they do not code themselves (i.e. they're external to the outcome/consequences), have long been condemned here. Some ran whole blogs/sites to demonise and misrepresent software developers.

*** It is a misleading term that has spun out of control and lost all consistent meaning, hence we say Free software -- the original term which "Open Source" opportunistically sought to replace.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Dalai Lama Succession as Evidence That Determined, Motivated People Can Reach Their Nineties
And we need to quit talking about their death all the time
Many Lawyers (for Microsoft) and 1,316 Pages to Pick on a Litigant in Person Who Exposed Serious Microsoft Abuses
Answers must be given
Layoffs and Shutdowns at IBM, Not Just Microsoft
Same as Microsoft
With Workers Back From a Holiday Weekend, Microsoft Layoffs Carry on, More Waves to Come
Now it's Monday and people are bad to work, even some journalists
You Need Not Wave a Rainbow Flag This Month to Basically Oppose Arseholes Looking to Disrupt and Divide the Community
Don't fall for it
What Miguel de Icaza and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
Similar aims, different methods
The 'Corporate Neckbeard' is Not the "Good Guy"
Works for IBM
 
More on "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
"pepe the frogs"
Links 08/07/2025: Sabotage of Networking Infrastructure, Microsoft XBox Game Pass Deemed “Unsustainable”
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Ancillary Justice and Small Web July
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 07, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 07, 2025
The FSF's (Free Software Foundation, Inc.) 2025 Summer Fundraiser Already Past Halfway Line
This is where GNU/Linux actually started
Mozilla Had No Good Reason to Outsource Firefox Development to Microsoft
What does Mozilla plan to do when GitHub shuts down?
Mozilla Firefox Did Not Die, It Got Killed
To me it'll always look like Mozilla got killed by its sponsors, especially Google, which had a conflict of interest as a sponsor
Dan Neidle, Whom Brett Wilson LLP SLAPPed (on Behalf of Corrupt Rich Tax Evaders), Still Fighting the Good Fight
Neidle fights for the poor people
Wayland Should Start by Dumping Its Very Ugly Logo
Wayland wins the "ugliest logo" award every year
Stop Focusing on Hair Colours, Focus on Corporate Agenda
If someone commits a crime, it does not matter if his or her hair was mostly white or there was no hair or a wig or whatever
Links 07/07/2025: Science, Conflicts, and a Fictional K-pop Group
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: Being a Luddite and Announcement of Gotify
Links for the day
Links 07/07/2025: XBox Effectively 'Dead', DMCA Subpoena Versus Registrar
Links for the day
The Nasty Smear (and Stereotype) of "Neckbeard" or "Greybeard" is Ageism
This is the sort of stuff they might try to volley at critics of Wayland
Why Many of Us Use X Server and Will Continue to Use It For Many Years to Come
Don't make this about politics
Microsoft's Nat Friedman Became Unemployed the Same Time the SLAPPs Against Techrights Started Coming From His Friends (Weeks After We Had Exposed Scandals About Him and the Serial Strangler, His Best Friend, Who Got Arrested a Few Days Later)
Nat Friedman is not "Investor, entrepreneur"
Brett Wilson LLP Uses Threats to Demand Changes to Pages or Removal of Pages Without Even Revealing Which Staff Member Does That (Sometimes People From Another Firm!)
This has been in the public for years
Dan Neidle Said "It Really Then Became a Job of Tormenting" Lawyers Like Brett Wilson LLP (Who Threatened Him for Exposing Crimes, Just Like They Threatened My Wife a Few Months Later)
he and his wife decided to take on the evil people and their evil lawyers
Large Language Models (LLMs) Externalise Their Cost to the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"The forty-sixth Free Software Bulletin is now available online!"
Weeding Out Extremism in Our Community
To me it seems like Microsoft Lunduke is rapidly becoming like a "hate preacher" who operates online, breeding an extremist ideology or trying to soften its image
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.