Sites Shut Down to Protest Software Patents

blueser writes "I went today to TUTOS homepage to check for a newer version, and I was surprised to see that the author replaced the homepage by a 'Closed because of Software-Patents' page, with a brief explanation." Just one site? that's hardly a big deal, but there's more. maliabu writes "Knoppix is closed, apparently waiting for the European Parliament to decide about the legalisation and adoption of so-called 'software patents' in Europe." And still more. SLbigE writes "The Wine HQ website has temporarily shut down its webpage in protest to a proposed law in Europe regarding Software Patents." There's many more sites as well, these were just the first I was alerted to, Feel free to note some more in comments. Looks like they're doing a good job of illustrating what could be lost soon.

Comments

Vote delayed

[mrew]

Apparently this protest (and the physical one) may have had some effect, in that the EU vote has been delayed according to LWN. Let's hope this additional time is beneficial to the anti-patent cause...

An MEP Replies

[maroberts]

I wrote to my MEP to protest and got this back - the only problem is, that like a typical politicians speech, I'm not quite sure at the ened of the day what its saying. I get the impression this is a little double edged. See what you make of it.

Dear Mr Roberts,

Thank you for your email, which has been passed to me as your local MEP from Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP.

Conservatives in the European Parliament have supported the objectives of the Directive to set out and defend the status quo in Europe following changes to the patent system in the USA and also planned for Japan. There is a clear intention across the EU Member States to see that Europe does not follow the USA and Japan in allowing widespread patent availability for software and business methods. Copyright will remain the principal method of protecting intellectual property in these cases. I and my UK Conservative colleagues support the general line that the Commission has taken which builds on and clarifies the existing patent law across the European Union and makes it clear that only software which forms part of a technological process will be patentable. This will allow patents to be provided for genuine technical inventions and stimulate European economic development in areas of economic strength like mobile telephony, digital television and computer controlled machine tools to name just a few possibilities. Contrary to the impression given in your letter there is no intention what so ever to allow generic patenting of software in Europe.

The amendments agreed by the Legal Affairs and Internal Market Committee last week, and supported by Conservative MEPs, have clarified the test conditions for software (deciding whether it has a technical effect) before authorising a patent. The Parliament amendments improve the text while ensuring that its principles are supported. Codification of the existing position will also avoid raising complicated issues of the validity of existing patents across Europe or allowing current unpatentable technologies to claim new patents. This will allow European businesses the chance to develop ideas with certainty as to their legal position. It will also reduce the pressure from companies holding permissive American software patents who wish to gain an extension of their patent rights in Europe.

Finally, I must point out that the Directive contains detailed provisions for review of its operation and for early revision should its provisions not work as intended. If it is clear, from the type of inventions being patented or from ongoing legal cases, that the goals of outlawing generic software patents are not being met, then a process of revision can be implemented quickly.

Yours sincerely,

Roger Helmer MEP

Re:An MEP Replies

[neillewis]

Well it's rather vague and definitely boilerplate, I got exactly the same thing from John Bowis MEP (another Conservative.)

From Glenys Kinnock (Labour) I got a paraphrased version of one of the directive's author Arlene McCarthy's own (self-praising) letters which is already posted on seveeral mailing lists. (I doubt Glenys uses Google much, or she'd be a little more careful what she sends out.)

After receiving these two, I got seriously annoyed that this vague and partial directive would pass due to a mixture of horse trading, lobbying special interests and the old pals act, so I'm glad to hear it looks like it's going back to the committee stage.

On a brighter note, Conservative Richard Balfe sent a thoughtful reply saying we should 'move carefully' and that he would 'take on board' my points when voting.

Jean Lambert sent me the most positive response I've had, which shows the Greens are very strongly onside, and noting that "The influence of the Business Software Alliance (whose main members are Microsoft and IBM) behind the project has been widely condemned."

At least these people actually bothered to answer, other MEPs haven't so far.

Re: Slashdot is not down

[brokencomputer]

We have software patent laws in the US and slashdot is in the US so slashdot would be protesting a law that were already enacted in the US. I dont think it would be helpful to shut down slashdot. if slashdot were shut down, a lot of people would not know about the protest and lots of other news.

Re:Rpm find

[rknop]

These site shutting down in protest is not very professional. This is one of the problems with the free software community, politics plays too heavy of a role in their actions.

If you are too timid to take actions that are going to inconvenience somebody you will never be noticed. Software patents are serious. You lose your Linux dodad today; software patents could eventually make you lose them forever.

For instance, do you really believe that the labor movement would ever have gotten anywhere if they never held any strikes? That the civil rights movement would have gotten anywhere if they never got in anybody's face?

The road to hell is paved with business as usual. Shutting down your websites may be "unprofessional", but it makes a meaningful protest that gets across the point of just how serious these sites believe the issue is.

-Rob

Re:This is ridiculous

[Rogerborg]

Patent for the wheel. There are others. The USPTO has gone beyond farce and reached a point where it's become simply too sick to live.

Change the Law

[MichaelCrawford]

The section of my article called Change the Law in Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads explains steps you can take to change the laws.

While it focusses on reforming copyright laws, most of what I say applies to patents. Note that in the U.S. at least, patents have the same legal foundation as copyrights, being authorized by the same clause in the Constitution.

The steps I suggest are:

• Speak Out
• Vote
• Write to Your Elected Representatives
• Donate Money to Political Campaigns
• Support Campaign Finance Reform
• Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Practice Civil Disobedience

Well I don't think the EFF deals with patents but they do a lot of other good work.

The above article is going to be put under a Creative Commons license to encourage copying as soon as I have the final draft done. I expect that to happen this weekend. So check back and copy the article to other websites when it's ready.

Also I closed my consulting business website a couple days ago and will keep it that way a couple more days.

While I don't get a huge amount of traffic to my homepage, I also don't expect most of the people visiting it to already be free software enthusiasts who know all about the patent controversy.

If slashdotters really want to have an impact

[Sphere1952]

Accidentally hit reset on a few well chosen machines all at the same time -- say maybe midnight GMT tonight.

I bet the shock to the Internet would be nothing compared to the political earthquake of headlines reading "Slashdot readers bring down Internet in protest over software patents."