Additional Explanation

This page provides a quick explanation of the logic behind the consequences of software patents that are mentioned on the start page of this website.

"You'll know when you get the bill."
Software patents would give large corporations a strategic advantage over small and medium-sized ones, and a potentially destructive weapon against open source. Those effects are explained in greater detail on other pages of this website. Less competition in the marketplace results in higher prices, which is why you would literally "get the bill" for software patents by having to pay more for software as well as for products that contain software, such as mobile telephones. Of course, that sentence was also meant figuratively, in the sense that there are various other negative effects of software patents that all of us would experience.

"When someone breaks into your computer, reads your E-mails, and steals the password of your bank account."
On this page you can read more about the implications of software patents to security. Researchers of the Technical University at Berlin found out that software patents promote the development and mass distribution of insecure software.

"When your computer crashes every day."
The stability of software is adversely affected by software patents due to the same reasons for which software patents result in insecure software.

"When spam doesn't stop."
There are already various patents on anti-spam techniques. On this page you can read about how large corporations try to establish industry standards related to which they own patents. There is no assurance that open-source software will ever be allowed to implement any of those patented ideas. Since open-source software powers large parts of the Internet, patents are a potential hinderance to the wide adoption of certain anti-spam techniques.

"When prices go up and companies shut down."
The implications to software prices were explained further above. The risk of companies shutting down is due to the fact that a few large corporations will drive smaller competitors out of the market with the help of the patent system. The reasons for that are explained on other pages of this website, such as this one.

"When people lose their jobs."
That is an inevitable consequence if small and medium-sized enterprises are weakened or, in some cases, even driven out of business.

This was just a quick explanation of the reasoning behind some of the statements on the front page of this website. Please take your time to read the more detailed and more specific explanations that this website offers on other pages. It's important to know what software patents would mean to Europe.

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