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CEOs speak out against EuroLinux Alliance For immediate Release Bruxelles, Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Munich, Paris. 2000-11-22. More than 200 European Software Companies and 2000 managers of the IT industry are now supporting the EuroLinux petition to protect software innovation in Europe. More then 100 CEOs and CTOs have published a statement to protest against the plans of the European Patent Office to legalise software patents by the end of this month. A list of supporting companies (http://petition.eurolinux.org/sponsors) as well as statements from company managers (http://petition.eurolinux.org/statements) is published on the EuroLinux petition web site. Supporting companies include small and medium size publishers of software for various operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Unix, Linux), Internet companies and service companies. There is a broad consensus on the fact that software patents stifle innovation and that copyright is perfectly adapted to the goal of protecting investment in software development. Dr. Stefan Wess, CTO of Bertelsmann Empolis considers that “Software patents equal knowledge patents.” He notices that “restricting the free use of knowledge inhibits innovation” and adds “We are an innovative software company and we are against software patents.” Erik Terpstra, CEO SolidCode in The Netherlands confirms: “SolidCode is strongly opposed to software patents. (...) The goal of patents is to promote innovation. The problem is that innovation in the software world does not come from patents. Most innovation actually happens in spite of patents. Most software patents that have been granted in the past are based on ideas that would occur to any competent programmer when faced with the appropriate problem, they are not ideas that take years to develop.” Software patents raise concerns among artists and publishers because they could also lead to reduced cultural diversity. Alex Cox, movie director and CEO of Media Station agrees “my company is a film and television production company. We produce output for Channel 4, the BBC, VPRO in the Netherlands, and various American and Japanese film & TV companies. We are increasingly involved with distribution and dissemination of information via the internet. We are concerned that the European Patents Office is trying to expand its power quite indefensibly. Patenting software devices damages the accessibility of the internet, limits creativity, and makes information an unfairly expensive commodity. We urge our fellow media producers to support the Eurolinux campaign and to oppose all e-patents.” Companies from the Americas and Asia are increasingly supporting the EuroLinux petition. For David Mpojeannis, president of UniExchange corporation, “the European region has a classic opportunity here to be the model for others and show how things should work in the software and technology game”. ReferencesEuroLinux Sponsors -
http://petition.eurolinux.org/sponsors About EuroLinux - www.eurolinux.orgThe EuroLinux Alliance for a Free Information Infrastructure is an open coalition of commercial companies and non-profit associations united to promote and protect a vigourous European Software Culture based on Open Standards, Open Competition, Linux and Open Source Software. Companies members or supporters of EuroLinux develop or sell software under free, semi-free and non-free licenses for operating systems such as Linux, MacOS or Windows. The EuroLinux Alliance launched on 2000-06-15 an electronic petition to protect software innovation in Europe. The EuroLinux petition has received so far massive support from more than 50.000 European citizens, 2000 corporate managers and 200 companies. The EuroLinux Alliance has co-organised in 1999, together with the French Embassy in Japan, the first Europe-Japan conference on Linux and Free Software. The EuroLinux Alliance is at the initiative of the www.freepatents.org web site to promote and protect innovation and competition in the European IT industry. Press Contacts France & Europe: Stéfane Fermigier sf@fermigier.com
+33-6 63 04 12 77 Permanent URL for this PR http://petition.eurolinux.org/pr/pr8.html LegaleseLinux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. |
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European Companies for a