Patent fears
New threat to FOSS?
The Indian Patent Act, 2005 rejects software patent. Software currently is under copyright laws, giving the developer of a software the right to sell his/her software. It also gives the right to others to develop new software based on the existing software. If patents come into place, the developer will have to pay for software developed. But this could change.
A draft patent manual, which includes the idea allowing software patents in India, has been put up for public debate by the Patents Office. "This will hamper development of new software in general and hit the FOSS movement. This is because software is an idea and patents on ideas are a nebulous area. You can never clearly prove or disprove a violation,' says Prabir Purkayastha, of Delhi Science Forum. "In such a scenario, small developers will find it very difficult to fight cases of violations filed against them by software giants.'
A study titled