The-Source.com

Patent Absurdity is a short film (about 1/2 hour) breaking down exactly how “software patents broke the system”.

The Film

Patent Absurdity provides an easy-to-understand walk through the legal and historical development of software patents, and also takes care to point out the severe flaws in the results.

The eHarmony patent is devastatingly illustrative if you can follow a slight bit of math, and the Beethoven / patent music argument quite striking – I applaud the film maker for finding such a great example!

A film well worth watching and I recommend it highly. Not only did I learn a lot, but even those areas I was familiar with were clarified.

The Players

I was very happy to see prominent members of the FSF and the SFLC in the film. Just another example of the crucial issues these organizations are addressing.

The Wiki

It seems that the End Software Patents wiki is affiliated with the Patent Absurdity film in some way. I last mentioned the wiki back in August 2009, and am pleased to see it has grown a lot since then (and my very small points remain!).

Spend a little time on the wiki if you like – software patents are one of those things I can’t spend too much time on or I’ll get upset. The system is so obviously broken, it’s shameful.