= European Parliament adopts deeply flawed unitary patent, gives up
power over innovation policy =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20121211-01.html ]
Today, the European Parliament has adopted a proposal to create a patent
with unitary effect for Europe. This decision will leave Europe with a
patent system that is both deeply flawed and prone to overreach. It also
ends democratic control of Europe's innovation policy.
"We are disappointed that so many MEPs were prepared to throw Europe's
researchers and innovators under the bus just to achieve a deal, any
deal" says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation
Europe. "It is natural that after nearly four decades of discussions on
a single patent system for Europe, most of those involved simply want
the debate to end. But we would have expected more of our elected
representatives."
== Intense criticism from all sides ==
In adopting the proposal, MEPs chose to disregard intense criticism of
the proposal from all sides of the debate. Patent lawyers[1],
independent legal experts[2], SMEs[3]and civil society groups such as
FSFE all voiced their concerns to MEPs ahead of the vote. FSFE
recognises the important work done by some MEPs, in particular the
Greens/EFA, in informing their colleagues about the serious flaws in the
proposal.
1. http://ipkitten.blogspot.de/2012/12/unitary-patent-deja-vu-council-debate.h…
2. http://www.ip.mpg.de/en/pub/publications/opinions/unitary_patent_package.cfm
3. http://www.april.org/en/against-software-patents-460-companies-demand-impro…
With this decision, the European Parliament has essentially given up its
power to shape Europe's innovation policy. That power will instead fall
to the European Patent Office, which has a track record of awarding
monopoly powers on the widest possible range of subject matter.
"We are alarmed to see both legislative and executive power in the hands
of a single agency," says Karsten Gerloff. "The separation of powers is
a fundamental principle of democracy. We regret that in today's vote,
many MEPs were prepared to give this up in exchange for an ill-conceived
compromise."
== Software patents, fragmentation and confusion ==
The text adopted today will lead to fragmentation of jurisdiction and of
jurisprudence across the European Union. Creating divergence and
confusion, the proposal will make the patent system much harder to
navigate for small and medium enterprises. The European Patent Office
will have much greater leeway to continue its practice of granting
patents on software. This will harm competition and innovation, and
create unnecessary risks for businesses and software developers. It is
also likely that the adopted text will lead to more intense patent
litigation in Europe, including by patent trolls.
FSFE is also concerned about the lack of a research exception and of a
provision for compulsory licenses. According to the Max Planck Institute
for "Intellectual Property", the envisioned patent court is incompatible
with European Union law[4]. These fundamental flaws mean that
considerable uncertainty remains about the way in which the patent
system will operate in future.
4. http://www.ip.mpg.de/en/pub/publications/opinions/unitary_patent_package.cfm
== Next steps ==
According to the European Parliament's website[5], "the international
agreement creating a unified patent court will enter into force on 1
January 2014 or after thirteen contracting states ratify it, provided
that UK, France and Germany are among them. The other two acts would
apply from 1 January 2014, or from the date when the international
agreement enters into force, whichever is the latest. Spain and Italy
are currently outside the new regime, but could decide to join in at any
time."
5. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20121210IPR04506/ht…
=== More information: ===
- Overview of issues with the unitary patent package[6]
- Resources on the unitary patent package[7]
6. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/current/unitary-patent.en.html
7. https://www.unitary-patent.eu/
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, 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 FSFE.
http://fsfe.org/
= First, do no harm: European Parliament must delay vote on unitary
patent =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20121208-01.en.html ]
The European Parliament is about to vote on a "unitary patent" for
Europe in its plenary session on December 11. The proposal currently on
the table is widely known to have serious legal and practical problems.
In the light of these problems, Free Software Foundation Europe urges
the Parliament's members to delay the vote until a better solution can
be worked out.
Under the current proposal, the Parliament would agree to give up its
power to shape Europe's innovation policy. This is a dangerous
proposition. Knowledge and innovation are crucial to our future, and we
cannot simply delegate their management to a technocratic body such as
the European Patent Organisation. Europe's political institutions have
to have the final say over innovation policy. This is a responsibility
which MEPs cannot shirk.
"MEPs must not saddle Europe's innovators with a rotten compromise.
Innovation is a key part of our common future, and it is too important
to be gambled away in a hasty decision," says Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's
President.
The political process that has led up to the current proposal has
suffered from a marked lack of transparency. The European Parliament
still has not published the text of the inter-instutional agreement
which it reached with the Council on November 19.
"We are deeply alarmed that such a crucial text may be ramrodded through
Parliament before MEPs and the interested public have had a chance to
properly consider the text," says Gerloff.
The most important/practical problems/with the current package:
- Instead of providing uniformity and transparency for market
participants, the current proposal will create/divergence and
confusion/. It will be hard for anyone to obtain clarity on how a
patent may be used, or where its powers end.
- /Lack of limitations and exceptions/puts Europeans'freedom to innovate
at risk. There is no provision for compulsory licenses, posing a grave
danger to public welfare. The lack of a research exception puts a
millstone of risk around the neck of Europe's scientists.
- -/Small and medium-sized enterprises/are the backbone of Europe's
economy. If this wrong-headed compromise is accepted, they will bear
the brunt of the resulting problems. This is not something that Europe
can afford, much less in the midst of an economic crisis.
The most important/legal problems/with the current package:
- The compromise would lead to a/fragmentation of the internal market/,
as patents would not be uniformly enforceable across all EU member
states. Additionally, there would be four overlapping levels of
patents existing side by side. This will inevitably create substantial
confusion and business risks for innovators and companies.
- A proliferation of courts that may handle patent litigation will
inevitably lead to a/fragmentation of jurisprudence/. This will even
further confuse anyone who comes into contact with the patent system,
increase the costs of litigation, and make patent risks even harder to
calculate for businesses.
- The envisioned Unified Patent Court is/incompatible with European
law/. Europe's policy makers have failed to address the problems
highlighted by the European Court of Justice in its Opinion 1/09
(March 2011). Even the Parliament's own Legal Services department has
doubts about the package's legality.
A package which leaves such significant problems unaddressed is not fit
to be adopted by responsible lawmakers. Policy makers are keen to put
this hotly contested issue behind them. But this desire must not lead
them to rush into an ill-considered compromise with numerous known
problems, in the face of widespread opposition from the patent system's
stakeholders.
FSFE joins large parts of the innovation community, and in particular
the Max-Planck-Institute[1] in urging the Parliament to reconsider the
unitary patent package. Until a better solution can be achieved, MEPs
should heed the age-old principle: First, do no harm.
1.
http://www.ip.mpg.de/en/pub/publications/opinions/unitary_patent_package.cfm
=== More information: ===
- Max Planck Institute for "Intellectual Property" and Competition Law:
The Unitary Patent Package: Twelve Reasons for Concern:
http://www.ip.mpg.de/en/pub/publications/opinions/unitary_patent_package.cfm
- Overview of issues with the unitary patent package:
http://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/current/unitary-patent.en.html
- Resources on the unitary patent package:
https://www.unitary-patent.eu/
== Contact ==
Karsten Gerloff
President, Free Software Foundation Europe
E-Mail: gerloff at fsfeurope.org <https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release>
Phone: +49 176 9690 4298
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, 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 FSFE. http://fsfe.org/
= FSFE Newsletter - December 2012 =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201212.en.html ]
== UK: Small and major steps towards more Free Software ==
On 7th November, several political candidates standing in the Manchester
Central By-election participated in the"Manchester Digital Debate"[1],
organised by our UK coordinator Sam Tuke and the Open Rights Group
(ORG). The event is part of FSFE's "Ask Your Candidates" campaign, which
aims to provide an opportunity to engage (local) politicians with
digital concerns that they typically do not address.
1. http://manchester.openrightsgroup.org/2012/10/24/manchester-digital-debate
Besides these important steps at the local level, last month the UK
government has released a new Open Standards policy. In future all UK
Government bodies must comply with the Open Standards Principles or
apply for an exemption. FSFE welcomed this step[2], and particularly its
strong Open Standards definition. It also includes another long-standing
FSFE demand: to take into account the software exit costs. From now on,
when UK government bodies buy a software solution, they have to consider
in the price a calculation of what it will cost them to get out of this
solution, in the future. This means that government bodies could not
simply avoid buying Free Software solutions because they are locked into
one particular vendor's proprietary file formats. FSFE president Karsten
Gerloff analysed the new policy in detail[3].
2. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20121101-02.en.html
3. http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2012/11/01/the-uks-new-open-standards-policy/
== Secure Boot: FSFE welcomes German Government's White Paper on "Secure
Boot" ==
We want to make sure that you are in control of your computing. This
control is, currently, restricted by "Secure Boot". On 19th November, as
the first government, the German Ministry of the Interior published a
white paper about "Trusted Computing" and "Secure Boot"[4]. The white
paper states that "device owners must be in complete control of (able to
manage and monitor) all the trusted computing security systems of their
devices." This has been one of FSFE's key demands from the beginning of
the debate. The document continues that "delegating this control to
third parties requires conscious and informed consent by the device
owner".
4. http://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Themen/OED_Verwaltung/Inform…
Another FSFE demand is also addressed by the government's white paper:
Before purchasing a device, buyers must be informed concisely about the
technical measures implemented in this device, as well as the specific
usage restrictions and its consequences for the owner: "Trusted
computing security systems must be deactivated (opt-in principle)" when
devices are delivered. "Based on the necessary transparency with regard
to technical features and content of trusted computing solutions, device
owners must be able to make responsible decisions when it comes to
product selection, start-up, configuration, operation and shut-down."
And "Deactivation must also be possible later (opt- out function) and
must not have any negative impact on the functioning of hard- and
software that does not use trusted computing functions."
Though all of what the German Government stated, should be self-evident,
unfortunately it is not. FSFE will continue talking to other governments
about this issue, to improve their understanding of the political and
economic consequences of this technology.
== German Cities: Two good news and a bad one ==
First the bad news: The city of Freiburg has decided to switch back,
from OpenOffice.org, to Microsoft Office. The study they based their
decision on was published one week before the decision, which we and
other Free Software organisations had criticised before[5]. Unfortunate
news, but as IBM's Rob Weir wrote in his article[6]in the Free Software
community we tend to look at the bad news, and forget about the good
news.
5. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20121116-01.en.html
6. http://www.robweir.com/blog/2012/11/a-tale-of-two-cities.html
So, some good news: on the one hand, the City of Leipzig has just
migrated 4200 working stations to OpenOffice (DE)[7], and on the other
hand, Munich announced they are saving over 10 Million Euro[8]with Free
Software. If you want to be updated with good news from the public
administrations in Europe, the European Commission's Join-up Portal[9]is
a good place to check out.
7. http://www.it-muenchen-blog.de/2012/10/leipzig-auf-kurs-zum-freien-officepa…
8. http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Linux-brings-over-EUR10-million-savi…
9. https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/news
== Something completely different ==
- LWN has a good summary of Karsten's talk "All watched over by machines
of loving grace"[10], which is about society, power, and control.
Besides, Karsten recommended the German authorities to publish the
code of mobile phone apps[11].
- Our Finnish team coordinator Otto Kekäläinen and the Danish hacker
Ole Tange received the 2012 Nordic Free Software Award[12]. With this
recognition, the Swedish Association for Free Software and Free
Culture ( FFKP, Föreningen Fri Kultur och Programvara[13]) honours
people and projects who have made important contributions to software
freedom. Congratulations Otto!
- "Fuck you, this is my culture!". This statement ended Amelia
Andersdotter's (Swedish Pirate Party) speech at the Internet
Governance Forum[14]wearing a European Parliament Free Software User
Group (EPFSUG)[15]t-shirt.
- Matija Šuklje, Jürgen Kneissl, Peter Bubestinger and Martin
Gollowitzer (all FSFE) were interviewed[16]by Radio Orange about Free
Software, software patents and other connected topics. In 2010 Radio
Orange was awarded with the German Document Freedom Award[17], because
they provide OGG Vorbis for all their radio shows.
- Also on software patents, Richard Stallman wrote an interesting
article on the WIRED[18], suggesting to change the effect of patents:
"We should legislate that developing, distributing, or running a
program on generally used computing hardware does not constitute
patent infringement."
- Former KDE president Aaron Seigo pleads to end the cults of
personality in Free Software[19].
- Mark Lindhout published the default Fellowship blog theme Pome on his
Github account[20], and invites everyone to contribute!
- Do you remember the time of the browser bundling? Or the Samba
antitrust case[21]? You might also enjoy XKCD's comic strip named
"Microsoft"[22].
- From the planet aggregation[23]:
- Looking for a self-made Christmas present for your grandmother? What
about a one button audiobook player? Michael Clemens described how he
build such a device[24]with a Raspberry Pi for his 90 year old
Grandma.
- FSF to begins to accept scanned assignments from Germany[25], and
Werner Koch, author of GnuPG, wrote the article"The tragedy of GNU
copyright assignments"[26], where he asks if the GNU hackers really
have the freedom they demand from others?
- Erik Albers wrote about his experience with Ubuntu running on a Nexus
7[27]while he and Torsten Grote gave a Free Your Android workshop at
SFSCON in Bolzano. Albert Dengg gave talks in Austria, and in our
upcoming events[28]you will find upcoming Free Your Android[29]related
events.
- Otto wrote about the WOW effect[30], and a wishlist for future mobile
devices while Henri Bergius wrote an extensive blog post about Jolla's
Sailfish OS"[31].
- How to open computed tomography (CT) scan pictures (DICOM)? Our
president, Karsten Gerloff, broke his foot[32]just for you to find
out.
- What can you learn out of the Skolelinux pilot in Rhineland
Palatinate? Guido Arnold wrote a summary about Kurt Gramlich's[33]in
English, so more people can learn what happened after the first
euphoria and the reasons why the pilot may be considered a failure.
- There were several reports from events: Erik Albers organised the Free
Your Android workshop during FSCONS[34], where Fellow Bjarni Einarsson
rescued an (almost) bricked phone. Ana wrote about her high
expectations to FSCONS[35]and how a perfect weekend looks like.
- Isabel Drost wrote 11 reports about the ApacheCon Europe[36],
- Mirko Böhm reported (in German) about the summit of Newthinking ( day
1[37], and day 2[38]), and about our workshop at an event from the
Green party about Internet Policy[39].
- And finally, read Leena Simon's blog post[40]to find out why South
Park failed on copyright.
10. lwn.net/Articles/523537/
11. http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/advocates-open-source-recommend-german-auth…
12. http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20121112-01.en.html
13. https://ffkp.se/
14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsoGMT49v_o
15. http://epfsug.eu/
16. http://sendungsarchiv.o94.at/get.php?id=094pr6519
17. http://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100324-01.en.html
18. http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/11/richard-stallman-software-patents
19. http://aseigo.blogspot.com.br/2012/11/ending-cults-of-personality-in-free.h…
20. https://github.com/marklindhout/Pome
21. http://fsfe.org/activities/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.en.html
22. https://xkcd.com/1118/
23. http://planet.fsfe.org
24. http://blogs.fsfe.org/clemens/2012/10/30/the-one-button-audiobook-player/
25. http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-to-begin-accepting-scanned-assignmen…
26. http://rem.eifzilla.de.ipv4.sixxs.org/archives/2012/11/27/the-tragedy-of-gn…
27. http://blogs.fsfe.org/eal/2012/11/21/my-experience-with-ubuntu-running-on-a…
28. http://fsfe.org/events/
29. http://freeyourandroid.org
30. http://seravo.fi/2012/11/the-wow-effect
31. http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/jolla-sailfish/
32. http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2012/11/26/broke-my-foot/
33. http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2012/11/skolelinux-pilot-in-rhineland-palatinat…
34. http://blogs.fsfe.org/eal/2012/11/15/free-society-conference-and-nordic-sum…
35. http://blogs.fsfe.org/anaghz/2012/11/22/fscons-elation/
36. http://blog.isabel-drost.de/index.php/archives/category/events-menu/apache-…
37. http://creative-destruction.me/2012/11/16/son12-day-1-2/
38. http://creative-destruction.me/2012/11/16/son12-day-2/
39. https://netzpolitik.org/2012/nk12-produzent-und-konsument-im-netz/
40. http://leena.de/south-parks-genius-website-copyright-fail/
== Get active: New year, new donations ==
It is the end of the year, and like FSFE's financial officer Reinhard
Müller[41]your editor would like to start 2013 with a good money
buffer. So this month, please help us to fill our war chest:
41. http://wiki.fsfe.org/Fellows/reinhard
- If you are not yet a Fellow, please join now[42]and support us with
your donation.
- Check out our support programs[43]to find out if the webshops you
already use for your Christmas shopping are listed there, and install
our plugins. (If you need some suggestions for books, take a look at
your editor's recommended books about Free Software[44].
- And please convince your employer to support us[45], and join our list
of donors[46]. (If you do not want to talk to your employer on your
own, please contact us[47], and suggest whom we should talk to.)
42. https://fellowship.fsfe.org/ams/join.php?ams=join
43. http://wiki.fsfe.org/SupportPrograms
44. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=399
45. http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
46. http://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.en.html
47. http://fsfe.org/contact/contact.en.html
Thanks to all the Fellows[48]and donors[49]who enable our work,
48. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join
49. donate/thankgnus.en.html
Matthias Kirschner- FSFE
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