Math You Can't Use: Patents, Copyright, and Software

This lively and innovative book is about computer code and the legal controls and restrictions on those who write it.

The widespread use of personal computers and the Internet have made it possible to release new data or tools instantaneously to virtually the entire world. However, while the digital revolution allows quick and extensive use of these intellectual properties, it also means that their developers face new challenges in retaining their rights as creators.

Drawing on a host of examples, Ben Klemens describes and analyzes the intellectual property issues involved in the development of computer software. He focuses on software patents because of their powerful effect on the software market, but he also provides an extensive discussion of how traditional copyright laws can be applied to code. The book concludes with a discussion of recommendations to ease the constraints on software development.

This is the first book to confront these problems with serious policy solutions. It is sure to become the standard reference for software developers, those concerned with intellectual property issues, and for policymakers seeking direction. It is critical that public policy on these issues facilitates progress rather than hindering it. There is too much at stake.

"The field of software is awash in disputes. Market participants and analysts routinely disagree on how computer programs should be produced, marketed, regulated, and sold. On one subject, however, just about everyone can agree: the current intellectual property protection regime for software is a mess. At present, all of the traditional means of delimiting intellectual property - patents, copyrights, and trade secrets - are applied to software in one manner or another. Congress has even invented a new type of law for cases in which these may be insufficient, with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act." "The result is widespread confusion, along with the proliferation of nuisance suits. To date, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted more than 170,000 software patents, some on applications as commonplace as the pop-up window. Each of these patents gives the holder the right to sue others where no such right existed before, and so gaming of the system abounds. Software providers are forced to funnel millions of dollars annually into defending themselves against lawsuits rather than developing better software. The wave of litigation may end up stifling innovation and hobbling the open source movement, one of the most promising developments of recent years." "How did this situation arise? And where should we go from here? In Math You Can't Use, Ben Klemens draws on his experience as both a programmer and an economist to tackle these critical issues. The answer to the first question, he explains, is simple: while patent laws are intended to apply to physical machines, software is something quite different. Software is not just another machines and it is not Hamlet with numbers. It is a functional hybrid that can be duplicated at no cost it is legible by computers in some forms and by humans in others, and it has a unique mathematical structure. All of these facts have to be taken into consideration in designing an appropriate intellectual property regime."

Ben Klemens is a guest scholar at the Center on Social and Economic Dynamics at the Brookings Institution, where he writes programs to perform quantitative analyses and policy-oriented simulations. He also consults for the World Bank on intellectual property in the developing world and computer-based simulations of immigration policy.