[DMCA-Activists] Europe's Economic Majority Opposes Sofware Patents

[Seth Johnson]

(See http://wiki.ffii.org/SwpatcninoEn for latest news.  -- Seth)


PRESS RELEASE FFII -- [ Europe / economy / ICT ]

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Economic-Majority supports Rocard JURI amendments
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20 June 2005 - The Economic Majority speaks out against software
patents, loud and clear. Even before the official launch of the
campaign, more than 800 companies representing over 17,000
employees and a turnover of more than 1.5 billion Euro have
pledged their support. Donating already over 91,000 euro to the
fight against software patents, they put their money where their
mouth is. The FFII invites all concerned companies to undersign
the declaration at http://www.economic-majority.com

Hundreds of European companies, along with a handful of US
enterprises, are joining forces to prove the European
Commission's assertion that there is an "economic majority in
favour of software patents" is wrong. The Commission concluded
this from a survey it held in 2000, where over 90% of respondents
were against extending patentability. Most of those were
discarded due to supposedly not being economically
representative.

The campaign website also already contains 47 testimonies of
various companies, in which they describe how software patents
would directly affect their business. "Software patents are
expropriation, the taking-by-force of copyrighted works using
dubious legalistic tools", says Pieter Hintjens, CEO of the
Belgian company iMatix, whose sms@ product allows for instant
deployment of web-administrated sms services.

Indeed, one of the first concerns mentioned on the campaign
website is that "we need to be sure that we own what we write".
Software patents are often said to be complementary to copyright,
by covering the "underlying ideas" as opposed to the actual
implementation. In practice, they severely weaken other forms of
intellectual property such as copyright, time to market, trade
secrets and trademarks. They are not just complementary, but take
away other rights as well.

Winfried Schäfer, CEO of the German Pentaprise GmbH, confirms:
"Developing customized software always is overshadowed by the
risk that one spends ample time into design and implementation of
software mechanisms and then later it turns out that the chosen
approach runs into patent risks." The Economic Majority therefore
calls for strictly limiting the patent system to applied natural
science.

Andrej Mertelj, CEO of Datalab, a Slovenian Enterprise Resource
Planning solutions company, notes effects on venture funding:
"The hardest hit came from the financiers. Since the environment
of software developers was drastically changed with the possible
codification of software patents, the future looks uncertain. Our
company planned to start a second round of financing with invited
venture capital. Due to uncertainties and potential large threats
from the major players we expect to pay a higher discount on our
offering, effectively raising less cash."

Today, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee
will vote on the amendments tabled to Mr Rocard's report on the
software patents directive. The concerns of the Economic Majority
are addressed by many of the amendments tabled to this JURI
report by Mr Rocard (PSE) himself, Mrs Kauppi (EPP), Mrs Kudrycka
(EPP), Mr Zwiefka (EPP), Mrs Frassoni (VERD/EFA), Mrs
Lichtenberger (VERD/EFA) and Mr Bertinotti (GUE/NGL). The FFII
urges JURI members to follow Mr Rocard's or the FFII's voting
list, available from http://www.ffii.org/amend


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More information
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The economic majority against software patents
   http://www.economic-majority.com

Testimonies
   http://www.economic-majority.com/testimony

FFII voting list for amendments tabled to Rocard's JURI report
   http://www.ffii.org/amend

Permananent link to this press release
   http://wiki.ffii.org/Empr050620En


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Contact details
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Erik Josefsson
address@hidden
FFII Brussels Representative
+32-484-082063

Steffen Maas
address@hidden
FFII Brussels Organisation
+32-484-561020


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About the FFII -- http://www.ffii.org
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The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a
non-profit association registered in several European countries,
which is dedicated to the spread of data processing literacy. The
FFII supports the development of public information goods based
on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 500
members, 1,400 companies and 80,000 supporters have entrusted the
FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning
exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing. The
FFII maintains offices in Munich and Brussels and national
supporter groups in most European countries.