Hi, just wanted to add a couple of things to the discussion for whatever they're worth. I've been meaning to contribute another argument made by Guenther Schmalz of SAP at the recent lobbyist meeting in Prague reported in Intellectual Property Watch (http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=195&res=1680_ff&print=0) and mentioned in Heise. He said software development is "not cheap" because they do coding and testing, while "free riders" will follow. "Those who innovate need patent protection, imitators don't," was his message.
He also said that www.economicmajority.com had 1,948 companies, representing 31,503 employees, and 3,258,244,082 EUR turnover, while SAP in Europe is 20 companies with 20,000 employees, representing 7,514,000,000 EUR in turnover. His point was to question the economic majority argument.
I also would like to clarify that Intellectual Property Watch (cited as ip-watch below) does not formally take a position on software patents in Europe. We are trying to report on the process in the name of transparency but are not actually engaging in advocacy. Best, William New, Editor
-----Original Message----- From: discussion-bounces@fsfeurope.org [mailto:discussion-bounces@fsfeurope.org] On Behalf Of Patrick Ohnewein Sent: dimanche, 5. février 2006 17:05 To: discussion@fsfeurope.org Subject: Re: Software patents: They're back!
Hi Georg,
a very informative article. It was a chance for me to recheck some noSwPats sites. I was a little shocked to see, that the contents seam to be deprecated on all sites. But of course if the enemy isn't visible, nobody will be willing to fight.
I write this e-mail to ask, if the FSFE has some reccomandations about the questionary "Consultation on future patent policy in Europe":
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/indprop/patent/consultation_en.htm
Is a request to fill out the questionary planed, should this questionary be used as a chance for european companies to communicate their disagreement to software patents?
If it can be a chance, should a request be send out to the companies, which already communicated their disagreement to software patents?
http://www.economic-majority.com/supporter.en.php?show=all
And my last question ( for now ;) ) Is there a site which will be an aggregator of all the sites and activities (ffii, nosoftwarepatents, ip-watch, blogs, ...) against software patents in europe?
Happy hacking! Patrick _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion@fsfeurope.org https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion