More on European Software Patents

pdajames writes "An article at ZDNet UK says that the EU bureaucrats aren't even considering the numerous anti-software patenting opinions out there. According to a well-connected lobbyist group, they have determined there will be patents, and the only question is what kind."

Comments

Small victory for Anti-patent groups

[greppling]

Those lobbying in favour of software patents wanted to have the final vote next week. But it has now been decided (sorry, link in German) that it will be held in September, as planned originally.

Hmmmm

[HughJampton]

The patents might not have so much effect in Europe, as patents take 7-10 years to be granted, and there is a 9 month period in which objections to the patent can be voiced before a patent is granted.

Re:Hmmmm

[MarcR80]

On the contrary, there will be a huge effect. There are already more than 30000 softwarepatents granted, that will become legal (yes, they've been granted illegally), when the EU decides in favour of patents. See here for a few examples.

Not surprised

[Realistic_Dragon]

I e-mailed my MEP and was most supprised to get a reply at all, unfortunatly it wasn't anything good.

He said that after cairful consideration and consultation with industry they were a necessary step to allow the EU to remain competative :o( I wonder how much he got paid to say that?

Engineers are supposed to be ethical as well as commercially minded, and consider the social consequences of their actions - something he seems to have forgotten when he became a politician.

Wannabe active on this matter?

[tka]

This probably the easiest way to be active on these kind of matters if you are joe/jill the average user.

Join the Electronic Frontier organizations:

Electronic Frontier Foundation - USA
Electronic Frontier Finland
Electronic Frontier Canada
Electronic Frontiers Australia
Electronic Frontier Ireland
Electronic Frontier Sverige
Electronisk Forpost Norge
Electronic Frontier Ireland
Electronic Frontiers Italy

(use them as google search terms)

Re:Getting angrier and angrier

[Anonymous Coward]

No there aren't just the opposite seems to be.
EuroLinux already has more than 150.000 signatures against software patents

http://petition.eurolinux.org/signatures.html?LA NG =en

And in an open discussion 90% of the people affected opted for no software patents. The European commission closed the discussion with the words, that there was a financial majority (of 10%). So you basically can see where the train comes from. The last hope to stop this really is the european parlament.

Given the state of the european software industry consisting 95% of individuals and small companies, the negative economic impact of such a regulation really could be severe. The the European Commission is playing the three monkey games of not listening not hearing and not talking in this matter.

article outdated - vote is not next week

[bazongis]

The article is from the 26th of June and states that the proposal is due for parliamentary vote on June 30th (earlier than originally planned).

However, the vote has been postponed and is not going to take place on June 30th, at least according to more recent reports by the usually well-informed German heise.de news service.

heise.de news article (in German)

This seems to contradict the article at least in spirit and gives the Open Source/Free Software community more time to gain momentum and turn the vote into the right direction.

Sad facts

[Anonymous Coward]

EuroLinux already has more than 150.000 signatures against software patents

http://petition.eurolinux.org/signatures.html?LA NG =en

And in an open discussion 90% of the people affected opted for no software patents. The European commission closed the discussion with the words, that there was a financial majority (of 10%). So you basically can see where the train comes from. The last hope to stop this really is the european parlament.

Canßt find the link to this now, this discussion was around two years ago, and I want to leave anybody to the interpretation himself.

All I can say is with one of the former commissions there was a huge bribe scandal, the main problem is that there is no real control mechanism for the commission and sometimes some really black sheep are in there.

Also something to consider

Given the state of the european software industry consisting 95% of individuals and small companies, the negative economic impact of such a regulation really could be severe. The the European Commission is playing the three monkey games of not listening not hearing and not talking in this matter. In the end the result will have to be paid by every european citizen with a lot more people being unemployed by the tech sector.

Article is WRONG. Journalist misunderstood speaker

[JPMH]

The ZDnet article is based on a misunderstanding.

Open Forum Europe got stitched up.

The patent directive is far from a done deal, as the success of last week's lobbying in Brussels shows.

The important point, that the journalist didn't realise, was that Mike Banahan was not talking about a consultation run by the European Commission or the European Parliament, but about a *consultation run by a firm of lobbyists* who had been hired by a consortium of big business associations. (Remember that OFE's response was paraded not by the Commission, but by this consortium of associations).

So the real story is

Lobbyists for big business [*not* the European Commission or the European Parliament] are determined to introduce software patents in Europe despite widespread opposition from European companies and software developers, according to a UK open-source software lobbying group.

The subsequent paragraphs take on a completely different dimension when you realise they are about the lobbying firm for the business associations, not the European institutions:

Mike Banahan, chief technology officer with OpenForum Europe, a subsidiary of technology lobbyist InterForum, said the group received clear indications during a consultation on the proposal that some form of software patenting would be introduced, regardless of the fact that the consultation showed heated opposition to such patents.

"We were briefed that a position that was in total opposition to patents would be discarded, that that was not a position they were prepared to take," Banahan said. "The position was, given that there will be software patents, what kind will there be? It was presented as a done deal."

OpenForum had not intended to submit a position paper on software patents, as it focuses on end user adoption of open-source software, but the group's opinion was solicited by the organisers of the consultation, Banahan said. The paper was misinterpreted in the press as supporting software patents, he added.

The quotes are echoed in this posting to the FSF Europe-UK list:

He stated (as off the record as he could get in a public forum) his statement on software patents was written from the point of view of - IF software patents were a done deal (and he was informed that they pretty much were, by the people asking him for a statement) then there should be exclusions for Free Software to safeguard the common interests.

He also said (again as completely off-the-record as possible) that he had been told that any anti-patent statement would be discarded, as many others had already.

The parliament vote is now expected in the first week of September. The Socialist group in particular is very divided. But internal party-group positions are expected to take shape this week, while the MEPs are all gathered together in Strasbourg, before they disperse for the long summer recess. It is therefore worth contacting MEPs now, sooner rather than later, to have maximum effect.

Contact details for UK MEPs can be found by clicking on the map here

(This information sent to ZDnet on Thursday night, but apparently not of interest).