Discussion May 2004

discussion@lists.fsfe.org

31 participants
14 discussions

[Fwd: Software Patents in Europe - Indication of an action week to European Media]
by Joachim Jakobs 05 May '04

05 May '04

Hi All! I do support Public Relations of FSFE. This is the announcement of the action week. Who would like to translate this letter incl. the enclosed "Common Position" into his mother tongue?? I am convinced that would help the national movements and initiatives. Monday next week we will publish a letter to the citizens of Europe. For this one we need some translators again. Please think about whether you want to be mentioned in your language as press contact with mail-adress and phone-number. It would have been of help as well when you have mail-adresses of papers, magazines radio- and tv-stations. Most interesting are business- and IT-related media That would be very nice. Thanks in advance. rgds JJ -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Software Patents in Europe - Indication of an action week to European Media Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 17:08:55 +0200 From: Joachim Jakobs <jj(a)pr-profi.com> Reply-To: jj(a)pr-profi.com To: discussion(a)fsfeurope.org 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(a)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=54004&… <http://www.computerwoche.de/index.cfm?pageid=254&artid=54004&main_id=54004&…> [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> -- Joachim Jakobs Tel: 0179/6919565 In der Roede 24 jj(a)pr-profi.com 64367 Mühltal www.pr-profi.com ___________________________________________________ -- Joachim Jakobs Tel: 0179/6919565 In der Roede 24 jj(a)pr-profi.com 64367 Mühltal www.pr-profi.com ___________________________________________________ -- Joachim Jakobs Tel: 0179/6919565 In der Roede 24 jj(a)pr-profi.com 64367 Mühltal www.pr-profi.com ___________________________________________________

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[Fwd: Software Patents in Europe - Indication of an,> actionweek to European Media]
by Joachim Jakobs 05 May '04

05 May '04

> Simone Piunno has translated it into italian, in 30 minutes (we are > waiting for the official timing, it is a world record, or close enough I > think :D) > > It is following. great!! I love you all! cheers JJ

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Software Patents in Europe - Indication of an action week to European Media
by Joachim Jakobs 04 May '04

04 May '04

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(a)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=54004&… <http://www.computerwoche.de/index.cfm?pageid=254&artid=54004&main_id=54004&…> [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> -- Joachim Jakobs Tel: 0179/6919565 In der Roede 24 jj(a)pr-profi.com 64367 Mühltal www.pr-profi.com ___________________________________________________ -- Joachim Jakobs Tel: 0179/6919565 In der Roede 24 jj(a)pr-profi.com 64367 Mühltal www.pr-profi.com ___________________________________________________

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Free software and international organizations
by Tom�s Di Dom�nico 04 May '04

04 May '04

Greetings, all. I am currently working in the International Criminal Court located in The Hague, Netherlands. Give the preference towards purchasing propietary software that prevails in this institution, I have decided to produce a document to aid me at the task of making people aware of the risks of having the information that is managed in this court captive of propietary software and monopolies, and the alternative provided by free software and open standards. I have read most documents related to this issue in the fsfeurope site, fsf site, etc., and I was wondering if any of you could point me to information that could be relevant to this matter. I have received positive feedback to my informal comments on this issue from people who could make a difference, and I would not like to let the opportunity go by. Any help will be certainly appreciated. Many thanks in advance! Tomás Di Doménico

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Discussion May 2004