Z:gnu-www-ja-stallman-mec-india--250cca-You have to look at the detail/en

You have to look at the details of how software patents affect software development to see that they cause a problem. You have to study that economic research in its mathematics in order to see why you shouldn't assume that patents always promote progress. So, it's easy for IBM to send a lobbyist to someone and say: &ldquo;You should really adopt software patents, they are great for programming. And look, the US is ahead and the US has software patents. If you have software patents too, you might catch up.&rdquo; Well, you can't get more dominant than that, and the US was ahead in computers before it had software patents, it can't be because of software patents.