[DMCA-Activists] Munich Going Forward with GNU/Linux Migration

[Seth Johnson]

> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20040811094816824


Munich Going Forward with Linux
 
Wednesday, August 11 2004 @ 09:48 AM EDT  


Heise is reporting that Munich's mayor has held a press conference, in which
he said that the bidding process for the switch from Windows to Linux will
go forward as originally planned, despite patent issues. Thanks to Matthias
for spotting this first.

Mayor Ude, who said he's been thinking it over for a few days, says there
will be a legal study completed by Autumn concerning the migration, and if
it looks safe, they will go forward and meanwhile the bidding begins.
Munich, he said, wants to stay with its commitment to Linux. He also
announced that the city is going to request a legal study on the question of
what consequences the EU-directive on the patentability of
"computer-implemented inventions" will have in the current version of the
Council of Ministers's proposed law. 

A translator is at work, and I'll have more for you later. 

As promised, here is the meat of it, translated by tglx: 


  "Despite legal ambiguity and continuous fears of a patent war around open
source, Munich's Mayor Christian Ude wants to start the bidding procedure
for the replacement of the desktop OS in the city administration. Ude
announced this at a press conference in the city hall. The LiMux project
goes into the active migration phase. A survey of the patent issue will be
finished by autumn. If the conversion to Linux appears then harmless, the
bidding can be started. The city wants to stay with its commitment to Linux
without fail: "It's irreversible that the city of Munich has decided in
favour of open source."

  "Ude announced that the city will award a contract for a legal opinion to
clarify the question of which effects the disputed European Union guideline
to the patenting of "computer-implemented inventions" in its present version
of the Council of Ministers could have. Ude requested information from the
Federal Government, why they voted in Brussels against the directive which
was given by the European parliament. This directive was clearly against the
broad software patent legalization and was accepted by the Federal
Government before the final decision in the European Council of Ministers.
If the Federal Government in Berlin wants to support open source projects,
as emphasized by the Federal Department of Justice last week, they must
provide legal security for the public and private efforts. Furthermore Ude
requested other cities, municipalities and authorities, which work on Linux
migrations, to join and support Munich in its efforts to clarify the legal
situation. The argumenets and the demands on the Federal Government have
been submitted in written form by the city of Munich. 

  ". . . . In a strong reaction to the interruption of the project, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and LinuxTag e.V. warned at the beginning
of the week against the abuse of software patents 'for psychological
warfare' in the economy. 'Mechanisms from the Cold War are now adapted to
protect the interests of companies', said Olive Zendel, chairman of
LinuxTag. 'The principle of nuclear deterrence is replaced by patent
armament, where companies arrange non-aggression pacts by cross licencing of
the patents. The one who suffer are the programmers, small and medium-size
enterprises and thus the economic situation in Europe.'"


He also provides us a link to the official statement, in German, of course
(http://www.muenchen.de/vip8/prod1/mde/_de/rubriken/Rathaus/40_dir/presse/pressemeldungen/linux_pressepapier.pdf),
and a translation of important bits: 


  1. Munich continues
     Munich continues to work on the LiMux project 

  2. Munich requests clarifying
     Legal opinion is requested to clarify the difference between the
software patent decisions of the European Parliament and the European
Council of Ministers.

     Munich requests a clear and unambiguous wording of the terms concerning
the software patents.

     Munich requests an answer from the Federal Government why the change of
the European Parliment decision is necessary at all and why the Ministery of
Justice claims that the new decision of the European Council of Ministers is
not affecting the Open Source community and small/mid sized companies. If
there is no difference to the decision of the European Parliament, then the
Government should explain why a change of this decision is necessary at all. 

     Munich requests legal security for public and private investments

  3. Munich seeks support

     Munich asks the affected cities, ministeries and companies to support
its claims and efforts. 


Infoworld also has some details: 


  "In a press statement issued on August 4, the city administration
confirmed it was 'standing by Linux,' correcting press reports that the
project had been put on ice. Mayor Christian Ude stated that his
administration's IT experts had recently presented 'strategic outlines' of
the Linux project to officials from Augsburg and Nuernberg. Ude noted that
there was 'interest in Munich's open source solution' from these German
cities as well as from Vienna.

  "Ude confirmed that the call for tenders for the base client had been
temporarily delayed to examine the technical and legal risks presented by
the draft software patents directive which, he said, provided for large
scale patenting of software.

  "All European local administrations and companies that are interested in
open source software should work to ensure that the planned legislation does
not become EU law, Ude said. In this sense, he is in complete agreement with
the decision of the European Parliament to restrict the scope of the
directive."