Valed

Knowing that what they want is against the public interest, the proponents of software patents conceal their intentions. One objective of this website is to debunk the lies and create transparency.

The "mother of all lies" is that no one ever admits to wanting software patents. How can there be a fruitful and honest debate if everyone claims to be against software patents? Don't trust anyone. You can hear many companies, politicians and governments say that they were against software patents. It doesn't mean a thing. They all say that. Chances that it's true are around 50-50 in each case. This website tells you who is really on our side, and if you ever have any questions, ask them! But don't take anyone's word for it without verification from us.

It's not a matter of common sense and intelligence whether you can find out who lies and who tells the truth in this. The problem is that there is a lot of special terminology, some of which was specifically coined by the patent lobby to create confusion. They can tell you all sorts of things and always resort to some strange definition of certain words, and those definitions are usually bizarre. It takes a lot of time to become familiar with all of the relevant vocabulary, and that's why, once again, you should not believe any person or organization that they are against software patents unless someone you definetely trust in these matters tells you that they truly are on our side. We hope this website will become such an authority.

Of course, politicians are entitled to not sharing our opinion. However, at the very least they owe it to all of us that they speak the truth, and that means half the truth is not enough. If there are political parties that want to pander to big industry lobbyists, then they may do that. In a democracy, they may even do that if their motivation is to please their largest donators. However, if that's the way in which they make their decision, then they don't deserve our votes. By giving to patent proponents what they want and lying to the rest of us, many politicians try to get everything from everyone: the donations from our opponents plus the votes from us. This website is part of an effort to ensure that they will have to carefully choose.

Click here to read about the "mother of all lies" in the software patent debate