[DMCA-Activists] Software Patents Bulgarian Declaration

[Seth Johnson]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Software Patents Bulgarian Declaration
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 16:20:33 +0200
From: Henrion Benjamin <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden

----- Forwarded message from Veni Markovski <address@hidden> -----

From: Veni Markovski <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden
Cc: 
Subject: [edri-ip] Software Patents Bulgarian Declaration
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 09:34:06 -0400
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FYI - feel free to distribute widely.

This has been given yesterday to the EU embassies 
in Sofia. The initiative is of the Free Software Society
(http://fsa-bg.org)


DECLARATION

We, Bulgarian IT companies, declare:

In the near future, The European Parliament will  vote on a
directive that will, in fact, legalize the patents in the
software.

As citizens of a state that soon will be an EU  member, we are
very embarrassed by this  development. It contradicts directly
with the  interests of EU and the European IT business.  And,
since these interests are ours, too, we are concerned.

Some say that this directive will protect the  small and middle
business. The truth is the  directly opposite ? look at who
supports, and who  opposes the directive. All supporters of the 
software patents are multinational  megacorporations. All SMBs
that have expressed an  opinion, are against the patents.

The SMBs provide more than 70% of the job  positions and 2/3 of
the taxes collected in the  IT business. A crash of their
business will  affect negatively not only the IT production of 
the EU, but also the unemployment levels and the  income of the
municipalities and the governments.  Also, the IT specialists
have a big influence in  the society, and their dissatisfaction
may get a broad support.

It is said that without patent protection, the  business will not
dare to innovate, and the IT  development will suffer. This is
not true. The  companies innovate to be more competitive, with 
or without patents. An introducing of software  patents will
obstruct the implementation of the  innovations; it is then when
the IT development will suffer.


It is said that without patents the software  innovations cannot
be defended. This is not true.  The innovations are very well
defended by the  copyright laws, which are valid now, and are 
created for this purpose. The patents only create  exclusive
rights, and these are especially dangerous in the software field.


The standard expiration time of a patent ? 20  years ? is, in
most industries, more than the  life of the innovation it covers.
In the  software, this is not true ? a technology that is  20
years old is totally useless there. This makes  the software
patents as good as if they were  eternal ? and this contradicts
directly with the very idea of the patenting.


Every program that is practically usable includes  thousands of
software technologies and ideas ?  that is, it potentially
violates thousands of  patents. If even only a few of them are 
controlled by opponents of this program, it may  not be created.
And there is no programs that  don't have a competition, at
least. Thus, the  software patents will severely limit the 
abundance of software on the market, and the level of the
competition.


Until 1980, when they instituted the software  patents, USA were
practically the world software  monopoly. Since then, the
tendency is reversed ?  their share both in the production of
software  and in the creation of top software technologies 
decreases. Since Japan instituted software  patents, despite its
huge technological  potential, its promising software industry 
practically disappeared. The position of EU in  the software
industry is very similar to that of  Japan before the software
patents ? there are no  reasons to believe that the things here
will go otherwise.


On the other side, countries without IT patents  show a fast
growth in their software production.  Some explain this with the
low salaries in  countries like China and India, but the growth
is  present also in EU, where salaries are much  higher. Recently
India rejected categorically the  software patents, and China is
not expected to  even consider them. If they are instituted in
EU,  the IT investors will be even more tempted to  move their
production outside EU. A new stimulus  will join the others ? the
danger of litigation  with software patents. It is potentially
even  larger than the difference in the salaries.


Often some European companies are mentioned as  main backers of
the software patents, but the  situation is different. Most of
the lobbying  behind the patents is provided by non-European 
companies. This reflects the reality that we will  have if the
patents are instituted. After the  synchronization of the
European patents bank with  the world, over 90% of the European
software  patents will be in the hands of non-European 
companies. In long-term perspective, this puts  even the largest
European companies in bad  position; for the SMBs, this is the
immediate perspective.


Right now, EU has the opportunity to free itself  from the
domination by non-European companies,  and to become a major IT
player. An institution  of the software patents will destroy
this  opportunity, and will put EU again in a  subordinate
position, this time not only to USA,  but also to some ambitious
countries that are  considered now to be Third World ones. Aside
from  this, EU will be the most convenient territory  for wars
between the USA patent holders and the  China and India software
producers. For the  conflicting countries the result might be
any,  but the territory is always devastated. Having in  mind the
importance of the software in the modern  information
technologies, and their importance  for the development, EU risks
becoming a Third  World place, technologically dependent on China
and India.


All this is a big concern for all of us. The  perspective of
Bulgaria joining EU begins to look  like a joining an union that
tries to destroy its  business in the areas of the most advanced 
technologies. This way, such a membership turns  from a privilege
into a danger, for all countries  ? both these who want to join,
and these who are already EU members.


With sincerest concern:

signed by more than 20 IT-companies (list is being updated as we
send it) 

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----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Benjamin Henrion <address@hidden>
http://bh.udev.org
<<                 Software patents are a
Temptation                     >>>
<<                  Temptation leads to
Stagnation                       >>>
<<                Stagnation leads to the Dark
Side.                     >>>

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