Dear Collegues, Dear Madam, Dear Sir,
in September last year the European Parliament affirmed not to legalize software patents in Europe. Less than seven months later, in cooperation with some national governments and the commission, the Irish Presidency of the European Union has drafted a working paper in favour of software patents. The paper will most likely be voted upon May 17th, 2004.
Not only does such behaviour distort legislation and trample on democracy, it also risks considerable negative consequences for economy and society.
The Free Software Foundation Europe [1] and the Foundation for a Free Informational Infrastructure [2] endorse an action week from May 10th to 14th to inform citizens, economy and politics about the harmful consequences of this initiative. In the course of this action week demonstrations and panel discussions in many European cities [3] will take place. These actions are accompanied by an open letter to the citizens of Europe. To inform you ex ante we have enclosed the joint position of FSFE and FFII concerning software patents (see below).
We would appreciate it if you could inform your readers on this issue and have an open discussion with us and others. You will receive the open letter by the beginning of next week. If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.
With kind regards,
Joachim Jakobs
__________________________________________________ Joachim Jakobs Tel: 0179/6919565 In der Roede 24 jj@pr-profi.com 64367 Mühltal www.pr-profi.com ___________________________________________________
Common Position of the Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. and the Foundation for a Free Informational Infrastructure e.V.
According to some within the EU council, software should also be subject to patentability. This includes protection beyond the source code of an application, which is covered in Copyright law, but also the result. Many different implementations with similar results are therefore threatened by a single patent.
Through this mechanism, an arbitrarily chosen random number of ideas can be turned into a monopolized area. A solution to the problem is not even required: A vague idea is sufficient!
The online bookstore Amazon.com filed a patent in Europe to cover its "one-click-technology" allowing single click purchases for registered users. The well-known "progress bar", usually used during installation routines, has been granted long before.
In a letter [4] to the EU commission in November last year the CEOs of Alcatel, Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens took a position vehemently in favour of software patents. This seems to imply that at least large companies benefit from software patents: Smaller competitors can be driven out of business easily and the big players can do mutual "cross-licensing": "If you let me use 1000 of your patents, you get permission to use 1000 of mine."
This impression is far from reality, though. Internet protocol telephony for example is a complex mesh of different compression methods - or in other words: different patented ideas. According to professor Henning Schulzrinne of Columbia University (New York), internet telephony has no chance in markets threatened by software patents. He only sees the option to wait 17 years until the patents have expired [5].
The aformentioned CEOs do a disservice to their companies: software patents cost them access to a market that market researcher Gartner expects to have a turnover of 3.6 billion Euro until 2007 [6].
How is it possible that four global players follow such a short-sighted policy? The answer is simple: they trust "false friends" - their patent departments, patent attorneys, patent specialists in professional organisations. Munich alone has 700 representatives of this profession [7] + [8] - no wonder that the chamber of patent attorneys is in favour software patents in a 12 page position [9].
The nuisance of the patent system in the software field has been scientifically explored by MIT, the Massachusetts Institue of Technology. Its researchers discovered in a 2003 study [10] that companies holding more software patents invest less into research and development.
What are the consequences for government, society and economy as a whole if this legislation is not resisted? We punish and discourage creativity. We put societal development into the hands of bureaucrats who bully us for their own benefit at every turn.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus said in the German Newspaper “Handelsblatt” few days ago: "The EU is not about freedom and openness, but about bureaucratization, regulation and harmonization". Let us not prove him true!
[1] www.fsfeurope.org http://www.fsfeurope.org [2] www.ffii.org http://www.ffii.org [3] http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpDemo0405En [4] http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/telcos1107/index.en.html http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/telcos1107/index.en.html [5] http://swpat.ffii.org/patente/wirkungen/voip/index.de.html [6] http://www.computerwoche.de/index.cfm?pageid=254&artid=54004&main_id...
[7] http://www.patentanwaltskammer.de/cgi-bin/find_map.cgi?key=80 [8] http://www.patentanwaltskammer.de/cgi-bin/find_map.cgi?key=81 [9] http://www.patentanwaltskammer.de/aktuell/040318_6_03_Zur_Sache_3.pdf [10] http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/bessenhunt03/index.en.html http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/bessenhunt03/index.en.html