Software patents: They're back!

[William New]

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 at fsfeurope.org
[mailto:discussion-bounces at fsfeurope.org] On Behalf Of Patrick Ohnewein
Sent: dimanche, 5. février 2006 17:05
To: discussion at 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
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