[for immediate release]
FSFE to challenge Microsoft in its appeal against
European Commission
(Essen/Luxemburg) The European Commission sought to help the IT market
grow in the best possible way for consumers and citizens of the
European Union with its antitrust ruling against Microsoft.
EU Commissioner Mario Monti imposed a penalty of nearly 500 millions
Euro and additional conditions. One of these is the publication of the
software interfaces. This information is important for example to the
Free Software project SAMBA. SAMBA connects the UNIX and GNU/Linux
World with Microsoft's operating systems. Via this gateway SAMBA
reduces customers addiction of the monoculture which is fostered by
the Redmond based software giant. Without the information on the
interfaces SAMBA cannot work properly.
Although it seems questionable whether that ruling would truly stop
the monopoly, Microsoft seems to be worried and has entered appeal
against it in front of the European Court.
After having participated as third party in the antitrust case before,
the Free Software Foundation Europe has participated to the
preliminary hearing on Tuesday 27th of July 2004 to enter court in
order to defend the decision of the European Commission and the
freedom to use Free Software SAMBA.
Among general interests of Free Software, the FSFE will specifically
be representing the interests of the SAMBA team, a Free Software
cooperation developing the only remaining competing implementation of
the SMB/CIFS protocols that permit interoperability between various
operating systems and the MS Windows family.
The Italian lawyer Carlo Piana, of the milanese firm Tamos Piana &
Partners, will represent the interests of FSF Europe and of SAMBA
team, the developers of the remaining alternative implementation of
the SMB/CIFS protocols that permits interoperability between various
operating systems and the MS Windows family. He commented: "FSFE
simply could not remain outside this litigation. The decision of the
Commission represents an important precedent which is of utmost
importance in the sofware market and for the whole society. Freedom,
not just money, is at stake. I am therefore very proud of this
appointment".
"This case is about preserving the last remaining obstacle to total
Microsoft dominance of the Microsoft-compatible server market. It is
not only about defending freedom for users, but mainly freedom of
businesses." says Georg Greve, president of the FSFE, adding "We call
on all businesses to support us in this struggle. Those who ignore
that call today have to expect to have only one choice to buy storage
and directory services from tomorrow."
Information about the FSFE fundraising campaign can be found at
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2004/news-20040701.en.htmlhttp://fsfeurope.org/help/donate.en.html
More background information on the Microsoft investigation is available
on http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.en.html
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may
participate in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use,
copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free
Software definition - allow equal participation in the information
age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software
politically and legally, and giving people freedom by supporting
development of Free Software are central issues of the FSF Europe,
which was founded in 2001 as the European sister organization of
the Free Software Foundation in the United States.
http://fsfeurope.org
Press Speaker:
Joachim Jakobs <jj at office.fsfeurope.org>
Cell: +49-179-6919565
Other Contacts:
Georg C. F. Greve <greve at fsfeurope.org>
Tel: +49-40-23809080
Fax: +49-40-23809081
Stefano Maffulli <maffulli at fsfeurope.org>
Tel: +39 02 34 537 127
Fax: +30 02 34 531 282
Cel: +39 347 14 93 733
More information for the press available at
http://fsfeurope.org/press/
FSFE to challenge Microsoft in its appeal against European Commission
The European Commission sought to help the IT market grow in the best
possible way for consumers and citizens of the European Union with its
antitrust ruling against Microsoft.
EU Commissioner Mario Monti imposed a penalty of nearly 500 millions
Euro and additional conditions. One of these is the publication of the
software interfaces. These informations are important for example to
the Free Software project SAMBA. SAMBA connects the UNIX and GNU/Linux
World with Microsofts operating systems. Via this gateway SAMBA
reduces customers addiction of the monoculture which is fostered by
the Redmond based software giant. Without the informations on the
interfaces SAMBA cannot work best.
Although it seems questionable whether that ruling would truly stop
the monopoly, Microsoft seems to be worried and has entered appeal
against it in front of the European Court.
After having participated as third party in the antitrust case before,
the Free Software Foundation Europe has participated to the
preliminary hearing on Tuesday 27th of July 2004 to enter court in
order to defend the decision of the European Commission and the
freedom to use Free Software SAMBA.
Among general interests of Free Software, the FSFE will specifically
be representing the interests of the SAMBA team, a Free Software
cooperation developing the only remaining competing implementation of
the SMB/CIFS protocols that permit interoperability between various
operating systems and the MS Windows family.
The Italian lawyer Carlo Piana, of the milanese firm Tamos Piana &
Partners, will represent the interests of FSF Europe and of SAMBA
team, the developers of the remaining competing implementation of the
SMB/CIFS protocols that permits interoperability between various
operating systems and the MS Windows family. He commented: "FSFE
simply could not remain outside this litigation. The decision of the
Commission represents an important precedent which is of utmost
importance in the sofware market and for the whole society. Freedom,
not just money, is at stake. I am therefore very proud of this
appointment".
"This case is about preserving the last remaining obstacle to total
Microsoft dominance of the Microsoft-compatible server market. It is
not only about defending freedom for users, but mainly freedom of
businesses." says Georg Greve, president of the FSFE, adding "We call
on all businesses to support us in this struggle. Those who ignore
that call today have to expect to have only one choice to buy storage
and directory services from tomorrow.
Information about the FSFE fundraising campaign can be found at
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2004/news-20040701.en.htmlhttp://fsfeurope.org/help/donate.en.html
More background information on the Microsoft investigation is available
on http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.html
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition-
allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness
for these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and
giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organization of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.
http://fsfeurope.org
Contacts:
Georg C. F. Greve <greve at fsfeurope.org>
Tel: +49-40-23809080
Fax: +49-40-23809081
Stefano Maffulli <maffulli at fsfeurope.org>
Tel: +39 02 34 537 127
Fax: +30 02 34 531 282
Cel: +39 347 14 93 733
More information for the press available at
http://fsfeurope.org/press/
1. Georg Greve in South America
2. Wizards of OS
3. Firenze Tecnologia becomes Patron of FSF Europe
4. Sources-switch, the Italian coordination effort of communities
5. Introducing Matthias Kirschner
6. GNU/Linuxtag in Karlsruhe
7. Strengthening the global Free Software network
8. Demonstration against software patents
9. Introducing the translators team
10. Fundraising campaign
1. Georg Greve in South America
Georg Greve continued his visit to South America by taking part in
several events in La Plata, Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo and Brasilia. A
summary of his most important activities in South America as well as
some pictures are available online at
http://www.fsfeurope.org/events/2004/FISL/fisl.en.html.
2. Wizards of OS
The third "Wizards of OS" conference took place in Berlin from June
10th, 2004 until June 12th, 2004. Georg Greve took part in the WSIS
(World Summit on the Information Society) panel.
3. Firenze Tecnologia becomes Patron of FSF Europe
To facilitate the technological innovation of the region Toscana and
the province of Firenze, Firenze Tecnologia (a company owned by the
Chamber of Commerce of Firenze) is investing on Free Software for the
technological innovation of the Toscana territory. Firenze Tecnologia
has therefore decided to protect their investement financing the work
that FSF Europe is doing for defending and promoting Free Software in
Europe. It is a very important success for the activities of FSFE,
since the donation is included in a wider strategical plan to support
innovation, in which Free Software and freedom play a central role.
4. Sources-switch, the Italian coordination effort of communities
Too many times our community have faced attacks from outside. Given
the growing importance of Free Software in all aspects of life, the
members of the main italian associations promoting Free Software have
founded a common working group, the "sources switch", aimed at
coordination and information exchange. Sofar the associations are
Chapter Italy of FSF Europe (FSFE-I), Associazione Software libero
(AsSoLi), Italian Linux Society (ILS), ROSPA and the business
Consortium Italicum Ratione Soluta (CIRS). The group will provide a
framework for promotional events organized by each association, and
will define a common strategy to increase effectiveness. Members
participate to the works as individuals, but they have agreed to
promote the initiatives within their organizations. The group met in
Avellino from April 28 through 30; results of the discussions include
an initial agenda, setting up of a secretary and a press office, a
common position on software patents and open standards, and a schedule
for the next meetings.
5. Introducing Matthias Kirschner
Matthias Kirschner has joined the FSF Europe team as Georg Greve's
Assistant. He will mainly help with administrative tasks such as
moderating mailing lists or coordinating the President's numerous
appointments. While he currently contributes as a volunteer, he will
work as an intern from September 2004 to March 2005.
6. GNU/Linuxtag in Karlsruhe
GNU/Linuxtag is one of the major Free Software events in Europe. Like
every year, the FSF Europe was present there with a well visited booth.
Georg Greve and Bernhard Reiter held speeches on the basic principles
of Free Software.
7. Strengthening the global Free Software network
The FSF Europe was happy to share it's GNU/Linuxtag booth with several
people from outside Europe. Federico Heinz is the president of Via
Libre, an Argentinian foundation for Free Software. Hong Feng from
China is the publisher of the Free Software Magazine, and Fumitoshi
Ukai, Niibe Yutaka, and Takatsugu Nokubi are members of the Free
Software Initiative Japan. The possibility to mutually share the
experiences was very positive not only for the guests but also for the
FSF Europe.
8. Demonstration against software patents
More than 1000 people demonstrated against software patents on June 24
in Karlsruhe. Along with several other speakers, Georg Greve expressed
his hope that the European Union will not give in under the pressure of
the strong lobby pushing for patentability of algorithms.
9. Introducing the translators team
With the growing attention the FSF Europe attracts in many countries,
the need has arised to build up a flexible, responsive, and well
coordinated translator team. Translating and proofreading texts is a
precious contribution to the work of the FSF Europe and an excellent
chance to spontaneously take part in the activities of the FSF Europe
without long-term obligations. You can find more information on:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/translators.en.html
10. Fundraising campaign
In order to be able to extend its activities, the FSF Europe has
started a fundraising campaign. The web page
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2004/news-20040701.en.html contains more
details.
You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Dear Professor Bullinger,
"Research should be able to earn its money also on the market!" - say
politicians – so we, the Free Software Foundation Europe, understand
when researchers use creative ways to get a better income. But even
researchers should take care not to bite the hand that feeds them. This
danger
is real, especially with the actual software patent discussion:
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is well known for its patent of the MP3
audio-compression standard. Another compression procedure, named Ogg
Vorbis,
is considered to be of higher technological value by experts. If software
patents should indeed be introduced in Europe, the Ogg Vorbis developers
could be confronted with license claims at will by the Fraunhofer IIS [1],
although they took care not to infringe the MP3 patent. The FhG might be
able to get rid of an unpleasant competitor or would at least better its
income substantially. We will avoid a discussion of the ethical questions
related to such a behaviour.
But it certainly is not very useful from the economical point of view if a
good idea blocks an even better one: this is also shown by Dr. Daniel
Probst
of the chair of Economy and Economical Theory at the University of
Mannheim.
Dr. Probst stated in a hearing of the German parliament regarding software
patents in June 2001 [2]:
"The part of SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) would sink and a
concentrational process would begin. Based on network effects, a few large
enterprises would gain a dominant place on the market. As far as allowed by
competition regulations, they would agree on cross-licensing their patent
portfolios and would hinder market entry of new companies with blocking
patents. The research intensity in the branch would stagnate or fall."
There
would also be a significant decrease of Free Software solutions.
Personally I regret every single point of the above. There are many more
deficiencies, some of them have been shown to the new German president,
Professor Köhler, in an open letter in June [3]. A particular important
point
for you as head of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft should certainly be the
quote
"The part of SME would sink...", especially regarding the fact that,
according to the German government [4], the FhG is taking 60 percent of its
research orders from SMEs.
Another point to take into consideration would be that big companies
might move
the research to the eastern parts of the European Union, because they can
find in Poland and other newly entered EU countries perfectly competent
software developers at a fraction of actual costs.
For Europe's greatest research society in the field of "information and
communication technology", this could mean not only the disappearance of
their project partners but, even worse, the dying of the companies which
FhG
wanted to live of. "Sawdust is falling since quite a certain time, the
splintering of the branch is imminent."
Kind Regards
Georg Greve
[1] http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/
[2] http://swpat.ffii.org/events/2001/bundestag/probst/index.de.html
[3]
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release-de/2004q2/000030.html
[4] http://www.bmbf.de/pub/inno-masterplan.pdf
--
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
GNU Business Network (http://mailman.gnubiz.org)
Brave GNU World (http://brave-gnu-world.org)
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may
participate in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use,
copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free
Software definition - allow equal participation in the information
age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software
politically and legally, and giving people freedom by supporting
development of Free Software are central issues of the FSF Europe,
which was founded in 2001 as the European sister organization of the
Free Software Foundation in the United States.
http://fsfeurope.org
Free Software “…should be seen, then, as more than just a
different kind of product. It is a different kind of process for
building, maintaining and changing the rules that govern
information flows."- according to a United Nations. The
institution working for Free Software in Europe is the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). Its success is well known:
"FSFE does a great job - for example by protecting the rights of
free software developers. Therefore we support the FSFE", says
Paul Salazar, director of marketing for the GNU/Linux Distributor
Red Hat in Europe, the middle East and Africa. He is not alone
with this positive view. Says Horst Nebgen, Vice President,
Novell, Central Europe and Managing Director, Novell, Germany:
"Novell released the installation and configuration tool "YAST"
(yet another setup tool) under the GPL (GNU General Public
License), to make it accessible for every developer. The GPL -
and therefore the FSFE by which it is published, maintained and
protected - guarantees transparency and independence from a
platform. This assures that through the ability of Free Softwarte
to innovate, the already proverbial stability, security and broad
network support continue to evolve and advance. Therefore for
Novell, the Free Software Foundation Europe is an important
partner on its way into the future.
"We are of course very happy about this praise", says Georg
Greve, President of the FSFE. "What makes this public
appreciation particularly significant is that the FSFE never
spared with criticism of these very companies when it seemed
necessary. Obviously the job done by the FSFE is appreciated even
if we are uncomfortable at times. This independence from
politics, industry and other associations is a prerequisite for
our present successes and the basis for our continued work."
The projects of the FSFE are multifaceted: participation in the
German government's delegation at the "World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS)", consulting with the European Union
during the establishment of the framework programmes,
participation in AGNULA, a project to build a fully Free Software
distribution for professional musicians and multimedia authors
and also the maintenance and advancement of the GNU General
Public License (GPL). This diversity costs a lot of money:
travels round the world, production of information and marketing
material, personnel cost.
The FSFE Coordinator for Germany, Bernhard Reiter, illustrates
the background: "We want to pursue our projects at the highest
level. Moreover we observe an increasing demand for support of
the public: we are asked to give speeches and to consult on
licensing Free Software. We would like to do all of this. But
without funding our hands are tied.
--
Joachim Jakobs <jj(a)office.fsfeurope.org>
Press Speaker - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
In der Roede 24, 64367 Mühltal (Tel: +49-179-6919565)
<>"For big sound studios it would be certainly interesting if they
could adapt their audio software to their individual needs.
Currently, if they require changes, they need to ask their software
developer first. That costs both time and money", says Michael
Spiess, a sound engineer in the South Bavarian town of Babensham.
For the little village band, continues Spiess, the freedom to use the
software for whatever purpose they want is certainly an advantage.
"There's a lot of software for Windows, but there is also a large
amount of rubbish. Professional applications run on GNU/Linux and
on Apple. Hobby musicians in particular are frequently forced to
improvise. Traditional systems do not allow this."
'Creating artistic licence by Free Software technology' might have
been the motto of AGNULA (A GNU/Linux Audio distribution -
www.agnula.org): within the scope of the EU project two GNU/Linux
distributions for Debian and Red Hat were developed that are targeted
specifically at professional musicians and multimedia authors.
"AGNULA constitutes a very vibrant environment for musicians",
states project leader Nicola Bernardini. The available applications
include a synthesizer and a graphical user interface for "CSound" -
(free) sound software written in C. The technical leader Andrea
Glorioso sees AGNULA as an "ecosystem" of developers and users:
"We need the experience of the user in order to fix problems in using
the system. Therefore it is of great importance to convince as many
developers and users as possible of the advantages of Free Software.
The more people participate in this ecosystem, the more rapidly it can
develop. For this reason AGNULA needs to reach the critical
mass of developers and users as soon as possible."
AGNULA also wants to set a legal example for other Free Software
projects: For Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation
Europe (FSFE) it is particularly important to avoid the contamination
of the AGNULA collection of Free Software by "proprietary software".
According to Greve, "this establishes a 'freedom seal of approval' for
users, who get the guarantee that with AGNULA they will always get
the full freedom."
The following institutions participated in the project (04/01/2002 -
04/01/2004):
* IRCAM Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique -
Paris
* Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Music Technology Group - Barcelona
* Kungl Tekniska Högskolan (KTH), Music Acoustics Group - Stockholm
* Free Software Foundation Europe
* Red Hat France
--
Joachim Jakobs <jj(a)office.fsfeurope.org>
Press Speaker - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
In der Roede 24, 64367 Mühltal(Tel: +49-179-6919565)
1. Introducing the FSFE newsletter
2. EU Council decision on software patents directive
3. AGNULA
4. Welcoming FSFE press speaker Joachim Jakobs
5. Georg Greve in South America
6. Protecting Free Software from over regulation
7. Other important public appearances
1. Introducing the FSFE newsletter
Around the official general assembly of the Free Software Foundation
Europe on May 15, the core members took the chance to discuss several
ideas on how to improve public information about the activities of the
FSFE. One of the results was the decision to periodically publish a
newsletter, and this is the first one.
2. EU Council decision on software patents directive
The most widely regarded event in May was probably the decision of the
Council of the European Union about the Software Patent Directive. After
the European Parliament made its clear vote against unlimited
patentability of software algorithms, the Irish Presidency proposed a
version of the directive that undoes virtually all of the Parliament's
changes. Even though some countries did not approve it, this version got
the necessary qualified majority in the Council.
The fact that the Council's opposition against software patent was still
stronger than expected can well be regarded as a result of the
successful cooperation of FSFE, FFII and many other organizations in
informing citizens and politicians about the danger of the Presidency's
proposal. As the decision process is still not finished, the FSFE will
continue to work on the software patent issue together with these
organizations.
3. AGNULA
While AGNULA (A GNU/Linux Audio Distribution) is already regarded a big
success by all participants (and also by the European Union, who funded
the project), work is not over with the final release. The FSFE still
supports the project by helping with things like the AGNULA trademark
license.
4. Welcoming FSFE press speaker Joachim Jakobs
To relieve the core members from the increasingly time-consuming press
work, the FSFE hired Joachim Jakobs on a part-time basis as a press
speaker.
5. Georg Greve in South America
Georg Greve is currently visiting several locations in South America,
getting in contact with local Free Software Activists there and
supporting them in building up a Free Software network there like the
FSFE is here. His public activities in South America included an
interview for Argentinas most important newspaper, a speech at the
University of Cordoba about Free Software in Education, an interview for
TV as well as for the largest national radio station in Uruguay and the
keynote at USUARIA, a South American congress on Free Software topics.
We expect these activities to help building up a global network of Free
Software organizations, of which the FSFE will be an essential part.
6. Protecting Free Software from over regulation
The Italian Chapter has been very busy trying to amend a new Italian
law that could harm Free Software. To limit the supposed damages that
the Italian motion picture and record industry claims to come from
peer-to-peer file sharing, the government proposed a law that makes it
illegal to publish any digital content on the web without "declaring
to the SIAE that the publisher has a license to do so". The law also
introduces more restrictions, making a criminal offense punishable
with up to four years of jail sharing without consent of the author
any file on the web, even if it is not "for profit".
The law is so absurd that FSF Europe has been asked by BSA (Business
Software Alliance) to cooperate to prevent its approval.
Unfortunately, though, the law passed despite the fact that in the end
both the government and the opposition agreed that "it is a very bad
law". The government promised to correct it soon and already
announced a revision: FSFE will continue its strong pressure on the
whole Parliament.
7. Other important public appearances
Stefano Maffulli participated at a forum about "Intellectual property"
at the Istituto Bruno Leoni (IBL) in Italy to point out some problems
regarding software patents. At the end of the month he participated
to a "summit of Italian free software organizations" in Avellino where
there was the chance to discuss a better coordination between them.
--
Free Software Foundation Europe
http://www.fsfeurope.org
May 19th, 2004
Software patents: A bad day for Europe and Germany
"Europe is about to finally give up on the goal of its heads of
states and governments to become the 'most competitive
knowledge-based region' until 2010 and has repeatedly failed
democratically. It is unfortunate that the optimism and trust placed
in the German government was somewhat premature. Yesterday was not a
good day for Europe and Germany!" is the sad summary of Georg Greve,
president of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) about the
decision of the council of the European Union about "computer
implemented inventions."
Among other things, the directive was created with the wrong goals
in mind: "The European Patent Office (EPO) has granted about 30.000
software patents so far. The declared goal of this directive was to
create patenting possibilities for 'computer implemented inventions'
and legaliziation of patents granted already."
As Jeremy Philpott of the UK Patent Office put it: "If the directive
had gone through with all the proposed amendments (Comment: made by
the European Parliament), there would have been plenty of patents
that would no longer have been valid. I cannot stress this enough:
[...] The whole point was that what is patentable today, will be
patentable tomorrow, [...]"
"So at no point in time was finding useful limits to patentability
for the sake of innovation the prime incentive, the directive should
rather make the already granted patents legally enforceable. If the
European Parliament agrees to this directive, about 30.000 patent
mines will be armed -- without consideration of the effect that
their explosions will have for economy and society."
Greve's conclusion: "The German minister of Justice Zypries spoke
about a 'Round Table' with interested parties to further mutual
understanding. Instead of 'furthering understanding' after the
decision has been made, I suggest to use this occasion to establish
a permanent round table to discuss sustainable political
decisions. The goal of this table should be to at least catch up in
international competition again."
With regards to the directive we strongly suggest to the European
parliament to not accept the current proposal despite better
knowledge. In particular a definition of what is to be considered
technical is indispensable, the whole directive rests on this
term. "Otherwise it would be like building a house on wheels and
without brakes under the assumption that its later inhabitants will
not move it even though doing so would promise them immense
profits."
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may
participate in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use,
copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free
Software definition - allow equal participation in the information
age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software
politically and legally, and giving people freedom by supporting
development of Free Software are central issues of the FSF Europe,
which was founded in 2001 as the European sister organization of the
Free Software Foundation in the United States.
http://fsfeurope.org
Contact
Europe:
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org>
phone: +49-40-23809080
fax: +49-40-23809081
Further contact information available at
http://fsfeurope.org/contact/
Essen/Hamburg
May 14th, 2004
FSFE welcomes German government on its way towards
a clear position in the discussion around software patents
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) "welcomes the commitment
of the Federal Government of Germany to freedom from software patents
as being of extreme importance for innovation in Europe", Georg
Greve, president of FSFE, comments in a press release. "Clearly the
opinion of the Federal Government regarding the information society
is shifting towards a position which is clear and close to the
position of its citizens. The FSFE will support the German government
on this journey to its utmost."
The ongoing learning process is particularly notable to the FSFE,
because for a long time during the preparatory deliberations of the
working group of the Council of Ministers, the Federal Republic
belonged to the hawks.
These hawks wanted, for example, so-called "requirements of program"
to be accepted. If these were to be introduced, a patent would be
infringed by the mere existence of a program, not just by its
commercialisation.
"This would threaten all people who develop software -- whether the
software is intended for use in study, leisure or business -- exactly
what the patent industry wants", explains Greve, and points out that,
"it is contradictory to use Free Software in so many public
institutions on the one hand and to threaten them with software
patents on the other hand."
The patent supporters want to monopolize interfaces and file formats.
The consequence of this would be that import and export features and
even simple printing features might be offered by the holder of the
monopoly only.
With this shift in direction, the suggestions the FSFE has been
making for years are starting to pay off. A number of administration
officials understand software patents to be a serious thread to the
information society; now the Ministry of Justice seems to subscribe
to this view as well.
Last Wednesday Elmar Hucko, head of a government department in the
Ministry of Justice, announced at an event in Berlin that the Federal
Government would vote against the controversial software patent
directive of the Council of Ministers of the European Union. At the
same time, according to the online magazine "heise.de", Hucko
criticised the current practice in the European Patent Office (EPO)
of granting patents in the field of "computer-implemented
inventions". "Not all of these these patents should have been
granted," he emphasised.
"After this we are confident that even the Ministry of Justice will
accept sooner or later that software can be patentable under no
circumstances -- not even when it is supposed to control machines,"
says the FSFE in a press release.
In Greve's opinion, the Federal Government should, given its change
in stance, now argue against the other members of the EC, "in order
to avoid a wrong decision". It should then convince its colleagues to
exclude software patents for the future.
Then it might be possible to offer a draft directive to the European
Parliament by the end of the year, "benefiting freedom and ensuring
continued innovation and growth" which restrains the patent industry
from bludgeoning software companies.
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition
- allow equal participation in the information age. Creating
awareness for these issues, securing Free Software politically and
legally, and giving people freedom by supporting development of Free
Software are central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in
2001 as the European sister organization of the Free Software
Foundation in the United States.
http://fsfeurope.org
Contact
Europe:
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org>
phone: +49-40-23809080
fax: +49-40-23809081
Further contact information available at
http://fsfeurope.org/contact/
[Note to the editor: To link your website with this article
you can use this adress:
http://fsfeurope.org/swpat/letter-20040510.en.html ]]
Dear Fellow Citizens,
Have you ever heard of internet protocol (IP) telephony? This is
beautiful technology! While sitting at your PC, you click a
number and the computer dials for you automatically! To chat to
the person on the side you can use a headset plugged into your
computer. To arrange a meeting with friends you can have a
telephone conference with as many people as you want. And if you
and your partners own a webcam you can also see each other. With
a flatrate no connection costs are incurred.
The business opportunities are considerable: IBM expects cost
reductions of 30% for professional users. The market research
company Gartner expects the market volume to quadruple till 2007
(as compared to 2002). Definitely a very interesting field!
However - there is a road block called 'software patents': While
Copyright law prevents competitors from selling applications
(eg "Microsoft Word") under a different product name, software
patents protect ideas and make them a creative wasteland for many
years. Apple, for example holds a patent on a virtual wastepaper
basket.
Given the appropriate legal framework, Apple can prohibit
implementation of the idea of a 'paper basket' in any other
software application, regardless of the technical solution or
programming methodology and language used. Alternatively they
might choose to extort licensing fees from the programmer writing
the paper basket software for using the idea of a wastebasket.
Back to internet telephony. IP telephony is like an incredibly
complex house of cards of ideas: how to synchronise audio and
video? How to compress data such that users with low bandwidth
analog modems are not excluded? All of these ideas are necessary
for internet telephony to become reality.
The result of software patents: no IP telephony at all! Professor
Henning Schulzrinne from Columbia University (New York) currently
informs programmers to wait another 17 years, after which the
patents will have expired!
In the US there is a legal basis to enforce claims from software
patents. Outside the scope of the law, the European Patent Office
has been granting software patents for a number of years, which
could not be enforced for lack of legal basis.
Against good reason employed at the crafting of the European
system and against the will of the European Parliament, which
reaffirmed the undesirability of software patents in September
2003, the European Union's Council of Ministers now seeks to
force legislation similar to the US! Now - less than seven months
later - the European Union's Council of Ministers and the
Commission prepare to vote for the exact opposite of the
parliamentarian will. What an affront to our elected
parliamentary representatives!
This abuse of the basis of democracy will have severe economic
consequences: despite current law the European Patent Office has
already granted 30,000 software patents. How much creative and
hence economic potential is blocked for decade(s) by this? How
many jobs do software patents cost or prevent?
Who has an interest in monopolizing ideas and dealing with them?
In November 2003, the CEOs of Alcatel, Ericsson, Nokia and
Siemens wrote to the EU commission and have spoken in favour of
software patents. Did they know what they were doing? Obviously
not - especially the telephony equipment suppliers would do
excellent business in IP telephony.
Obviously, patent lawyers are interested in new and complex
regulation: after the European Parliament's decision the chamber
of patent lawyers issued a 12-page position paper, signed by the
president of the "computer software committee". From the point of
view of the more than 700 patent lawyers in Munich (to these
you need to add the legal personnel in companies and chambers)
this effort is justified when there is a threat of losing an area
of activity with the potential for growth. But can the European
economy afford to sacrifice its competitiveness in favour of these
partial interests?? As long as the public discussion is
dominated by patent lawyers in patent offices, lawyers in law
firms, chambers, associations and ministries one gets the
impression that these particular interests are the interests of
the entire society.
The nuisance of the patent system in the software field has been
scientifically explored by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. In a 2003 study its researchers found out that the
more software patents a company holds, the less it invests in
research and development.
What happens in government, society and economy as a whole if
these developments are not stopped? We bar people from being
creative. We put societal development into the hands of
bureaucrats bullying us for their own benefit at every turn. To
use the words of the Czech President Vaclav Klaus "The EU is not
about freedom and openness, but about bureaucratisation,
regulation and harmonization". If we leave this discussion to
others, we may prove him right.
Dear Fellow Citizens you know us - www.fsfeurope.org and
www.ffii.org - as organisations fostering freedom in the digital
age (free software) and public information goods.
We will continue doing that work.
Software patents will enslave all software, but also free
software. So in consequence this might be much more: the
enslavement of society as a whole by the patent establishment.
Therefore we ask you for support in our struggle for freedom in
Europe! You can do this by:
1. Protesting to politicians and administrations of your country
2. Pointing entrepreneurs - not their patent department to
the dangers of software patents and asking your government to
fight for innovation and against software patents.
3. Contacting the papers in your region/in your professional
environment. Journalists have influence - but they first have to
recognize that you take this problem very seriously!
4. Supporting us with your donation: information on how to donate
is available at http://www.fsfeurope.org/help/donate.en.html and
http://www.ffii.org/assoc/financ/account/
Donations are tax-deductable in many European countries. If you
let us know about where to send it, receipts for your tax
authorities will be provided quickly. Also, in the case of FSFE,
please indicate whether you want to be publicly listed as supporter.
5. Participating in the demonstrations we are doing in Mid May in
many European capitals and cities,
http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpDemo0405En
Moreover you can sign FFII's "Call for Action II" via
http://www.ffii.org/ffii-cgi/aktiv?f=euparl&l=de
With kind regards,
Georg Greve
Free Software Foundation Europe
www.fsfeurope.org
Hartmut Pilch
Foundation for a Free Informational Infrastructure
www.ffii.org
--
Joachim Jakobs jj(a)office.fsfeurope.org
Press Speaker - FSF Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
In der Roede 24, 64367 Mühltal (Tel: +49-179-6919565)
_______________________________________________
Pr mailing list
Pr(a)fsfeurope.org
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/pr