[DMCA-Activists] DC, Dec 7: Software and Law: Is Regulation Fostering or Inhibiting Innovation?

[Seth Johnson]

(Ben Klemens lists RMS as a participant via BoingBoing; the
Brookings listing doesn't. -- Seth)


> http://www.boingboing.net/2005/12/01/patent_reform_cagema.html

Thursday, December 1, 2005

Patent reform cage-match debate in DC, Dec 7

Organizer Ben Klemens writes,

    Washington, DC's Brookings Institution will be hosting a
panel on software and law, on Dec 7, and I could not be more
enthused about it. This is partly because I'm the moderator, and
partly because it's going to be an open debate on some
enthralling subjects by some exceptionally well-informed
indivudals. There'll be two of the best advocates against
software patents, Richard Stallman (of the FSF) and Brian Kahin
(of the Ford School at UMich and the CCIA); and there'll be two
of the best advocates for software patents, Ken Dam (who sired
many a software patent as a former IBM VP), and Emery Simon (of
the Business Software Alliance, one of the key players in passing
the DMCA).

    As well as being a rousing good time, this debate _matters_,
because the Patent Reform Act of 2005 is gaining steam in
Congress, and it's still an open question whether it will help
the world of software or just create more constraints. 

---

> http://www.brookings.edu/comm/events/20051207.htm


A Brookings Briefing
Software and Law: Is Regulation Fostering or Inhibiting
Innovation?

Introduction:

Ben Klemens
Guest Scholar, Center on Social and Economic Dynamics, Brookings

Panel:

Kenneth Dam
Senior Fellow, Economic Studies Program, Brookings

Brian Kahin
Senior Fellow, Computer & Communications Industry Association

Emery Simon
Counselor, Policy Council of the Business Software Alliance

Daniel B. Ravicher
President, Executive Director Public Patent Foundation

Event Registration:
Contact: Office of Communications
Phone: 202/797-6105

Wednesday, December 07, 2005
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC   (directions:
http://www.brookings.edu/comm/directions.htm)

In the last few decades, computers have gone from a relative
novelty to an essential element of virtually every aspect of
business and government operations. In a new book, Math you Can't
Use: Patents, Copyright, and Software (Brookings 2005)
(http://www.brookings.edu/press/books/mathyoucantuse.htm), author
Ben Klemens (http://www.brookings.edu/scholars/bklemens.htm)
discusses the theoretical structures and practical issues
underlying patent and copyright law, the software business as it
is practiced today, and software itself. Experts in the software
field will join Dr. Klemens at a panel discussion to analyze
whether the issues in applying patent law to software can be
readily resolved, how the Patent Reform Act of 2005 can help or
hinder the industry, and future prospects for software law in the
European Union, India, and China and other fast-developing
countries.

To date, patent law has been applied to software with virtually
no modification. Few, if any, computer scientists and businessmen
and women in the computing field are satisfied with how it has
been transferred to software. Even copyright as applied to
software has its pitfalls. Some recommend minor fixes to the
existing regimes, and some recommend wholesale reform.

Panelists will take audience questions following their remarks.