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EuroLinux Alliance For immediate Release Paris. 2001-03-25. On Friday, March 23rd 2001, State Secretary of Industry Christian Pierret who is directly in charge of the French Patent Policy stated in an interview to 01 Informatique, the leading IT magazine in France: "I am against software patents in Europe. It would kill innovation and promote juridical terrorism because multinational software publishers would multiply legal disputes against start-ups". EuroLinux welcomes this brave position. "Christian Pierret is the living proof that there still exist politicians in Europe who defend innovation and the general interest even under the pressure of powerful multinational software publishers, politicians who can oppose the underwater lobbying of their national patent offices seeking to defend their own privileges" says Stéfane Fermigier, Pdt of AFUL for EuroLinux. EuroLinux wishes for other governments in Europe to be able to take similar positions. In Germany, all political parties have taken positions against software patents. In France, many member of parliaments (Conservative, Greens, Socialists) have taken positions against software patents. In the Netherlands, the parliament ordered its government to first fix the obviousness and technicality criteria before allowing software patents. In Denmark, PROSA, an association of 13.000 computer professionals opposed software patents. The EuroLinux petition counts 200 commercial companies in its supporters, as well as more than 70.000 individual signatures. Still, key software patent lobbyists such as the UK Patent Office, which organised in London in 1998 an EC conference to promote software patents, or John Mogg, head of the General Directorate for Internal Market at the European Commission, are pushing for the legalisation of so-called "patents on software with technical effect". The problem with this approach is that "the technical character of computer software should be generally acknowledged" which means that "all computer programs are technical" as famous German patent expert M. Betten explained in front of EC representatives as early as in 1997, during a conference of the UNION, an association of more than 700 professionals in industrial property from 20 European countries. It is obviously contradictory to ban software patents and to legalise patents on software with technical effect. Recent decisions of the European Patent Office show that the legalisation of "patents on software with technical effect" would not only legalise patent on file formats (ex. GIF, MP3) or network protocols (ex. WAP) but also lead to patents on business methods such as "printing cooking recipes on demand" (EP756731) or "managing a company through a single log file" (EP 209907 ) EU governments should understand that the General Directorate for Internal Market is trying to fool them with the concept of "software with technical effect". They should clearly say "NO!" to all software patents, with or without technical effect, in order to protect innovation in Europe. PictureChristian Pierret at Metz University in 1998. (copyright EuroLinux - reproduction authorised) High Resolution available at http://www.aful.org/images/pierret-tux-big.jpg
ReferencesEuroLinux petition for a Software Patent Free Europe - http://petition.EuroLinux.org/ A few patents granted by the European Patent Office to "software with technical effect" EP 209907 - Computer management system Excerpt of 01 Informatique (2001-03-23) interview with Christian Pierret: Public Administrations get on-line faster thanks to free software "I already supported personally open-source software, notably at the university of Metz. I am glad to see French publishers of free software like MandrakeSoft be successful in the United States. I support Linux and free software, because they allow faster and more robust development to put the Public Administration on-line. While commercial software raise the issue of computer security, since one does not know what is inside. This is why I am against software patents in Europe. It would kill innovation and promote juridical terrorism because multinational software publishers would multiply legal disputes against start-ups" 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 70.000 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/pr10.html LegaleseLinux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. |
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