If there ever was a case that illustrated why software patents are idiotic, it is a story from today's slashdot. In a bold move, a company has filed a patent claim for linked lists.

Just to recap for a moment - patents are meant to protect new inventions, so that when you make a brilliant new discovery, like say, the light bulb, and someone wants to take that idea and get rich you can say "hang on, I was first, if you want to use the idea you'll have to license it from me".

Linked lists are as old as computer science itself, however. No, scratch that, they're a fundamental principle, in fact. They are what the Pythagorean theorem is to mathematics. The patent claim in this case is not for linked lists in general, it's for lists linked in more than one direction, which is just a common variant of linked lists. But here's the kicker, the patent was granted. That means the data structure I was taught in college (and which every comp sci student is taught) is now to be considered hands off. :( So if I write an application using linked lists, I am liable for patent infringement. It's a good thing patents are not backwards enforcable, or my old assignments in college would come into question. :lala:

Software patents, of course, are only applicable in the one country crazy enough to accept them, the United States. The idea was rejected by the EU some time ago, but another round of lobbying over patents in Europe is on the cards.

The point of a patent is to protect innovation. In this case, the holder of the patent is able to sue any company or individual for using linked lists, but that kind of case would be completely useless, because of the prior art principle. If a patent is granted and it is then proven that someone has used the idea before the patent was issued, then the patent is invalidated.

Other ideas already patented are Adobe's tabbed window panes (as used in Photoshop) and Amazon's one-click shopping.

Unlike DRM, patents are not such a big consumer problem, they apply more to developers. But it means that if a company is granted a patent for "lossy compressed music files" (mp3), and uses this idea in a program (Windows Media Player), then anyone else wanting to play back these mp3s can't, in any way, make this happen. Because the limitation isn't on the format itself, it's on the idea that such a format can exist. So noone can even come up with a different format for music files, the whole thing is restricted. This is not a good example, because a) there's lots of prior art for music compression and b) I took this from thin air, so it may not be that realistic or representative. Nevertheless, this is how the mechanism works and so for open source software, which often strives to provide alternatives for common commercial software, software patents is a minefield.

I mentioned the scourge of DRM in the past and it's interesting to see that things are developing. For one thing, I've really taken to Magnatune after Amarok added the plugin and the other day I purchased this album (apparently 10% of the sales through amarok go to the amarok project, neat). Defectivebydesign.org publishes a list of non-DRM music stores which is very handy. Apparently, eMusic sells songs for 25c to iTunes's 99c and without DRM, I might just register over there and look around.

Another most welcome development is iriver deciding to abandom the DRM on their mp3 players, which places them back in my good graces. Their newest players state the system requirements as Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP, no more Windows Media Player baloney. Which means that when the time comes to replace my ifp 895, I probably will go with a third iriver. And that's five sales in all, including recommendations I've given to other people.

And here's a very well written article about why DRM is bad, including an instructive video by the people at Defectivebydesign.org. Last but not least, Lawrence Lessig's lecture on free culture and the evolution of cultural freedoms.

If you're more into books than music, Telltale Weekly has a collection of cheap audiobooks you can download in mp3 format. Some are indeed free, and if you read my impressions on Kafka's Metamorphosis on this blog in the future, you'll know why.

Finally, this isn't a DRM issue, but it's closely connected to it. Record companies lament about losing money lately, and they try to make you care about their profits by saying that the artists you love are not getting paid for their work. Well apparently, it's true that artists aren't being paid, but that this is not a recent development, and has little to do with profits and all to do with their corporate policies. In contrast, Magnatune (and possibly others) pay artists 50% of every sale, so for those who care about artists, it's a pretty good incentive to shop there instead.

No pun or euphemism this time, the title says it all. Years ago Jon Lech Johansen broke the code that prevents DVDs from being played on software that isn't supplied by the movie industry, in an effort to play back store bought DVDs on his linux system. He was sued (with considerable pressure from our friends in the US), and cleared of any wrong doing. To complete the story, needless to say, there was not even one piece of software for linux at the time, supplied/endorsed by the industry, to play DVDs. And there isn't today, as far as I know.

So today people can play DVDs on linux, but not in a legal way (depending on where you live, hopefully not in the US). Jon's work has also given rise to projects like divx, xvid and the general mass distribution of movie titles, because he released the code openly (which made it possible to read DVD discs), and not just in a ready-made application. So much for DVDs.

Let's switch to music. If you buy and mp3 player today, most likely it will only work with the egregious Windows Media Player and put all kinds of restrictions on how you can transfer songs to it and how you can transfer songs from it. Not to mention that it completely kills your choice of what music player to use with your mp3 player. Not only that, most players don't support a free and open format like ogg vorbis, they will support mp3, wma and whatever proprietary bs.

If you buy and iPod, you can use it with iTunes (and probably Windows Media Player), but you certainly cannot use it on linux. That is, until someone wrote the code to allow you access to it. You also don't get to play ogg files. iRiver, the manufacturer I have given much credit (and a couple of sales through recommendations, in fact) switched their newest product lines to the Windows Media Player hell, so now if I buy a new player from them, I can't use it on linux anymore. There are companies that do support (or at least not block) linux on their players, but they're few.

So you see, when you buy a song from iTunes today (which you shouldn't, if you value your freedom), you don't actually own the song. You own it on iTunes and your iPod (and probably Windows Media Player), but no further. Not on your iRiver, not on another device or even music player software. I read a blog entry where someone described how they bought a Seinfeld DVD only to find out it was completely useless to them as the person could not play it in linux, because of DRM restrictions.

DRM (Digital Rights Management), ie. restrictions on how you can use digital content, is an abomination and I encourage anyone buying any kind of digital content to be very vigilant about what exactly they are paying for. Check all labels on the box, ask the salesman if necessary (chances are he won't know much). If you buy online, check the licence agreement (or simply google/wikipedia for an opinion on the company's restriction policy). Above all: research, research, research. Or be stuck with a product you can't use and a store that won't let you return it.