On Thu, 2004-11-11 at 21:18 +0000, Teresa Hackett wrote:
> Useful piece in the Economist on patents, mentions European software
> patents.
> http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3376181
While this criticism is good, the argument the Economist is following is
not quite the one we're pushing for. The main thrust of their article seems
to be a call for better discipline. Unfortunately, this might persuade the
EU that all they need do is add an amendment to a pro-s/w-patent directive
saying "Oh! And Patent Offices had jolly well only grant really worthwhile
patents, okay everybody?". If s/w patents are possible, it is inevitable
that bad patents will be granted. Once granted, only the wealthy will be
realistically able to challenge them.
Good luck,
Malcohol.
_________________________________________________________________
Sign up for eircom broadband now and get a free two month trial.*
Phone 1850 73 00 73 or visit http://home.eircom.net/broadbandoffer
It seems as if Charlie McCreevy gave the keynote speech at today's
conference at the European Parliament. He's still Commissioner-designate, of
course, due to the Buttiglone affair, but it's unlikely his portfolio will
change. The FFII webcast not operational right now.
Teresa
-------------------
Check <http://tv.ffii.org/> to view the webcast of 'Regulating Knowledge:
Costs, Risks, and Models of Innovation'
<http://en.eu.ffii.org/sections/bxl0411/index/>, an event held in the
European Parliament tomorrow, Wednesday November 10. Sponsored by FFII,
MERIT, CEA-PME, the Greens/EFA in the EP, and OSI.
Regulating Knowledge: Costs, Risks, and Models of Innovation
Wednesday, 10 Nov 2004
Location
European Parliament, Rue Wiertz, 1047 Brussels, Room ASP 1G3.
Program
*Welcome address (9h15-9h20)*
Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-president of the Greens/EFA in the EP
*Keynote (9h20-9h45)*
Charlie McCreevy, Commissioner for Internal Market and Services
*Panel 1 (09h45-11h00)
The Lisbon agenda, the economics of innovation, and patents on
knowledge-related processes*
/Policy regarding software patents is a critical element of the Lisbon
agenda, because software innovation is an important economic area. As an
enabling technology, software also determines how information and
knowledge is managed across all fields of innovation, and indeed in all
forms of business and commerce. This panel will examine what economists
know about patents and innovation, as well as the special issues related
to patents on software-implemented innovations./
*/Speakers:/*
* Luc Soete, Director, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on
Innovation and Technology, University of Maastricht
* Jim Bessen, Boston University
* Dietmar Harhoff, Director, Institute for Innovation Research,
Technology Management and Entrepreneurship, University of Munich
*Panel 2 (11h15-12h30)
Bottom up economics: defending SMEs and the public interest*
/Despite the often heard argument that patents benefit small companies,
SMEs largely oppose software patents. This panel will examine the
economic problems of dealing with patents from an SME perspective. It
will look at new developments in the U.S. that show how patent holding
companies behave in the ICT sector./
*/Speakers:/*
* Wendy Seltzer, Electronic Frontier Foundation
* Stefan Zickgraf, Secretary General, CEA-PME
* Rita Heimes, Director, University of Maine Technology Law Center
*Panel 3 (14h00-15h15)
New developments in patent practice: assessing the risks and cost of
portfolio licensing and hold-ups*
/The proliferation of software patent lawsuits has focused attention on
the risks that patents pose to software developers and users. Open
source and Free Software are often named as the most endangered
entities, but small firms, non-profit institutions and public interest
groups are all confronted with this issue. This panel will focus on how
they are addressing this challenge./
*/Speakers:/*
* Dan Ravicher, Public Patent Foundation
* Bruce Perens, Perens LLC/OSRM
* Jonas Maebe, FFII
*Panel 4 (15h30-16h45)
Informing and reforming patent policy*
/There is widespread agreement that getting patent policy right is
important to economic growth, yet there are no mechanisms in place for
monitoring how the system is performing in practice. The controversies
surrounding the software patent directive and the community patent
suggest that existing institutions and political processes may not be up
to the task of developing a sound patent policy. This panel will examine
options for making the European patent system more accountable in terms
of economic outcomes./
*/Speakers:/*
* Brian Kahin, University of Michigan, formerly White House Office
of Science and Technology Policy
* Marianne van der Steen, Technical University of Delft, formerly
Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs
* Susana Borras, University of Roskilde
*Conclusion (16h45-17h00)*
EIF Conference on Computer Implemented Inventions (17h00-22h30)
The EIF (European Internet Foundation) organises a panel discussion on
Patentability of Computer Implemented Inventions
<http://www.eifonline.org/site/index.cfm?TID=1&BID=16&SID=1&LG=2&ART=46&back
=47>,
chaired by Erika Mann MEP. This event will take place in the Hotel
Renaissance, 19 Rue du Parnasse, Brussels. Registration for this event
is directly via EIF. Send an email with your name and affiliation to
secretariat(a)EIFonline.org, or have a look at their website
<http://www.eifonline.org/site/index.cfm?TID=1&BID=16&SID=1&LG=2&ART=46&back
=47>
for more information.
This was on the ffii news list.
+++ For Immediate Release, Please Spread +++
Members of European Parliament Invited to Two Software Patent Events
this Week
Members of European Parliament Invited to Two Software Patent Events
This Week
Campaigners for and against patentability of software are doing their
best to attract members of the European Parliament to two contrasting
conferences in Brussels on tuesday and wednesday this week.
Leading innovation economists and patent insurance experts are coming
to Brussels at the invitation of the Foundation for a Free Information
Infrastructure (FFII) and the Maastricht Institute for Economic
Research on Innovation and Technology (MERIT) in cooperation with the
European Federation of Associations of Small and Medium Enterprises
(CEA-PME), the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) and the
Greens / European Free Alliance for a [11]two-day conference to study
some fairly new issues.
Among the participants of this conference are
* Brian Kahin, University of Michigan, formerly White House Office
of Science and Technology Policy,
* Jim Bessen, Boston University, main author of the most detailed
studies on software innovation and patents to date, the latest of
which concludes that such patents have been slowing down
innovation even in large enterprises.
* Koen Martens of the Sender Policy Framework (SPF/Sender-ID) group
whose anti-spam standardisation work has recently stalled due to
patent conflicts within the group
* Simon Phipps of Sun Microsystems, a company that has been torn
between recent painful patent litigation experiences and a strong
patent department that has obtained one of the largest software
patent portfolios in Europe
* Jean-Fran�ois Abramatic, board member of ILOG, a world-leading
producer of industrial process-optimisation software and a former
Chair of of the World-Wide Web Consortium,
* Dan Ravicher, president of the Public Patent Foundation and author
of a study that finds the Linux kernel possibly infringing on 283
US patents,
* Bruce Perens, formerly at Hewlett-Packard, an open-source
community leader and author of many articles about the
* David Martin of M-Cam Inc., an consulting company based in the US
that works with large companies and governments around the world
to analyse risks and evaluate financial imponderabilities of the
patent system
* David Sant, representative of the European Patent Office in
Brussels, who will discuss the significance of the Parliament's
and Council's legislative proposals for patent granting with
Hartmut Pilch, president of FFII
* Jozef Halbersztadt from the Polish Patent Office, who will conduct
a workshop about the expected effects of the different proposed
directives on the patent granting and explain the viewpoint of the
Polish Patent Office, which has strongy criticised both the EPO
practise and the Council proposal and adhered to a practise which
is closer to that proposed by the European Parliament
* Luc Soete, director of the Maastricht Institute for Economic
Research on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)
* Dietmar Harhoff, director of the Institute for Innovation
Research, Technology Management and Entrepreneurship of the
University of Munich
* Wendy Seltzer, as fellow of Berkman Center of Harvard Law School
author of the [12]chilling effects website and staff attorney of
the Electronic Frontier Foundation
* Stefan Zickgraf, secretary general of [13]CEA-PME
* Rita Heimes, Director of the Technology Law Center of the
University of Maine, who oversees the Patent Program of the US
state of Maine
* Marianne van der Steen of Delft Technical University who formerly
oversaw patent studies at the [14]Dutch Ministry of Economic
Affairs
Members of the European Parliament and representatives from the
Commission give greeting addresses and preside as moderators over some
of the panels.
On wednesday evening the conference audience is invited to an evening
speech and dinner event of the [15]European Internet Foundation (EIF),
a club of members of the European Parliament and Brussels diplomats of
large companies and associations, most of whom favor software patents,
as currently granted by the European Patent Office and endorsed by the
Council's directive proposal.
Erika Mann will be moderating the last panel of the FFII/MERIT
conference and the registered members of this conference are invited
to the following EIF event and allocated some speaking time. The
FFII/MERIT event is open to the general public free of charge.
You can follow the events in the web at http://tv.ffii.org/.
Backgrounds
* [16]Latest News on European Software Patents
* [17]The Future of the Software Patent Directive
About the FFII
* FFII EU Website http://eu.ffii.org/
* Contacting the FFII http://eu.ffii.org/sections/kontakt/
+ Brussels Office (Erik Josefsson) +32-27396271
+ Munich Office (Hartmut Pilch, Holger Blasum): +49-89-18979927
* info at ffii org
References
11. http://eu.ffii.org/sections/bxl0411/
12. http://www.chilling-effects.org/
13. http://www.ceapme.org/
14. http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpatnlEn
15. http://www.eifonline.org/
16. http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpatcninoEn
17. http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpatfuturEn
_________________________________________________________________
Sign up for eircom broadband now and get a free two month trial.*
Phone 1850 73 00 73 or visit http://home.eircom.net/broadbandoffer
Just a little something I saw today...
Conor
-------------------------------
News
[Operating systems]
Thursday 28th October 2004
British Government report gives green light to Linux 12:52PM
The UK Government has released its report on the viability of Open Source
software in the public sector, giving the platform its full backing where it
offers the best value for money.
The report arrives on the same day that Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer sent
round his executive email on the cost-savings of Windows.
Ballmer's arguments centred on the higher cost and difficulty of finding
support and in-house training for adopters of the platform along with the
exposure to intellectual property risks that Microsoft would cover you for.
Not so, says the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), department behind the
report. Any fear that support may be fragmented or difficult to obtain 'may
now be misplaced,' says the report. 'Many large suppliers such as IBM, Sun
and HP are investing considerable effort and providing tier 1 support for
the GNU/Linux operating system. Further, many proprietary software suppliers
are porting their applications to run under GNU/Linux. Linux distributors
have also extended their support life-cycles for their product sets. We
expect this trend to continue and accelerate.'
And having spent a year piloting Open-Source-based solutions from IBM and
Sun, the OGC's report makes for interesting reading on the benefits of
migrating.
On the server side, the report says such a move was straightforward and the
benefits clearly measurable. Powys, for example was able to consolidate some
60 servers to just 10. The organisations also noted improved security and
better performance. Indeed the MoD Defence Academy based its complete
Intranet and Internet configuration on Linux platforms, supporting Open
Source applications and concluded that Open Source software is 'inherently
more secure than one based on proprietary software'.
Ballmer, in contrast, said in his email that 'the number of security
vulnerabilities is lower on Windows, and Windows responsiveness on security
is better than Linux.'
On the desktop, systems such as StarOffice were considered acceptable for
many of the tasks that users needed to perform. That said, no organisation
managed to do away with proprietary software altogether, as many of them
needed to maintain interoperabiility with external sites. Many of them
needed the
Access component of Microsoft's Office that is missing from StarOffice and
OpenOffice - an issue that continues to dog Linux desktop migrations for
SMEs in the UK.
Business software fared even less well: 'Software packages available under
Open Source licences are typically limited in scope; there were no examples
of licensed OSS application packages being used for `mission-critical`
business services,' reads the report.
The likes of Novell are hoping to address this. Novell's MONO project is a
development environment that makes it easy to develop and port applications
to a multitude of platforms. This is key to allowing developers to move
their in-house software to Linux, and an invaluable tool with which Novell
can woo the corporate market too.
The other black hole for Open Source that the OGC pilots struggled with is a
lack of documentation available.
As for the legal risks, the OGC noted the existence of the SCO suit, patent
fears and the like but characterised such fears as a 'misunderstanding',
noting that while Munich had delayed a Linux move due to patent fears it had
nevertheless go ahead with it. Similarly, the only thing to take from the
SCO suit is the result of the DaimlerChrysler suit which was as good as
dismissed in favour of the car giant.
Teh cost benefits were brought home in a case study from Beaumont Hospital,
Dublin, Ireland. The hospital measured the TCO for proprietary solutions at
8.7mn. The Open Source equivalent notched up just shy of 210,000. Expertise
may be more hard to come by for the time being, but 8mn will buy you an
awful lot of that.
Cost-savings came not only from cheaper procurement and licencing costs, but
also because Open Source software will run on much older hardware, extending
the lifespan by around 50 per cent.
The OGC concludes that Open Source software is now a 'viable and credible
alternative to proprietary software for infrastructure implementations, and
for meeting the requirements of the majority of desktop users'.
Equally important is its strategic outlook: it's priority is to 'avoid
lock-in to proprietary IT products and services,' and maintain
`interoperability that support open standards'.
The report is not just a set of recommendations. The OGC was set up to
amalgamate government department purchasing to give greater buying power and
better value to government purchases. As the departments pass their
purchases through the OGC their value for money will be considered against
the findings of this report.
You can read the full report at the )OGC website
<http://www.ogc.gov.uk/oss/Report-v8c.htm>.
----- End forwarded message -----
--
Conor Daly <conor.daly(a)oceanfree.net>
Domestic Sysadmin :-)
---------------------
Faenor.cod.ie
4:10pm up 3 days, 2 min, 0 users, load average: 0.41, 0.52, 0.33
Hobbiton.cod.ie
16:08:01 up 3 days, 1 min, 1 user, load average: 0.14, 0.32, 0.32
Hi there.
Colours.ie have replaced the t-shirts. They look great. Get in touch if you
want one. EUR18 for non-members and EUR14 for members
Malcohol.
_________________________________________________________________
Sign up for eircom broadband now and get a free two month trial.*
Phone 1850 73 00 73 or visit http://home.eircom.net/broadbandoffer
I see from:
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_meetup_2005
that Frankfurt will be hosting the Wikimedia conference.
For the record, I did offered some support from IFSO, but could only
guarantee a few volunteers.
Good luck,
Malcohol.
_________________________________________________________________
Sign up for eircom broadband now and get a free two month trial.*
Phone 1850 73 00 73 or visit http://home.eircom.net/broadbandoffer