[Fsfe-ie] SiliconRepublic: ‘Yes’ vote on EU patents vital to software industry -- Irish Software Association

Ciaran O'Riordan ciaran at fsfe.org
Thu Jun 23 03:07:00 CEST 2005


James Heald <j.heald at ucl.ac.uk> writes:
> http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single4986

ok, I mailed them this:

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Hi,

I have been working on the software patents directive since June 2003 on
behalf of Irish Free Software Organisation (www.ifso.ie) and recently also
on behalf of Free Software Foundation Europe (www.fsfeurope.org).

I found many parts of the recent article "Yes vote on EU patents vital to
software industry" to be inaccurate or biased.  I'm on the other side of the
debate: trying to protect European software users, and European software
industry *from* software patents.


Firstly, those against software patents want a Yes in the directive too.
The issue is what amendments each sides want.

We want a directive that clarifies the current exclusion of software ideas
from patentability.

Currently, there are 30,000+ software patents that have been approved, but
are not enforceable.  The Common Position would make these enforceable.  70%
of these software patents are held by companies from the USA and Japan.
European patents are ONLY enforceable against Europeans.  So introducing
software patents will not "protect" European innovations from the USA or
other countries.

Right now, Europe is a safe place for research and software development.
Unlike the USA, you can do both without the threat or possibility of being
litigated against.


If you'd like to contact me about this directive, we could arrange to talk.
I'm living in Brussels now.  Usually email is the best way to contact me,
but for the next two weeks telephone would be best.  I can't always answer
my phone, but I check my voice mail regularly: +32 479 549 295

The committee of IFSO (myself included) can be contacted at: contact at blah.ie

I look forward to talking with you.

Ciarán O'Riordan

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-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan,
http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/                             http://fsfe.org
            Support FSFE's work against software patents by becomming a Fellow



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