EU Software Patentability Directive
The main IFSO site has a
brief summary of the issues and a list of EuropeanCompaniesAgainstSoftwarePatents.
Current status
Current status 2005 07 06: The directive has been rejected by the parliament. This would appear to be the end of this directive, judging by Commissioner McCreevy's previous statement that "... if the parliament was to reject the directive then I would not be putting another proposal on the table."
Current status 2005 06 01: The directive was passed by the Council. Next it will be considered by the European parliament on July 6th 2005. We hope that at the very least the amendments of Michel Rocard (who is the Rapporteur for this Directive) will be accepted.
It appears that JURI has asked for a restart, as we hoped they would. See:
http://kwiki.ffii.org/?Restart050202En but the request was denied.
Charlie McCreevy took up the post of Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services on November 1 2004. McCreevy's predecessor in the post (Bolkenstein) was very pro swpats, so this change may be good.
On December 20 2004 the directive was to be approved as an A list ("uncontroversial") item by the Environment committee(!) (
FFII link). On the 20th Wlodzimierz Marcinski (Poland's Minister of Science and Computerisation) appeared in person at the committee to remove the item from the agends (
FFII link,
Enquirer link
reg. link
news.com link). It is not exactly clear what action will be taken next but it is notable that this is the second time Poland has acted to ensure the democratic process is followed on this matter.
Action
A consideration of a ProSoftwarePatentsLetter, FurtherRefutations
The Commission has rejected the restart request, and the directive is again tabled for as an A-List item on the 7th March. Here is a page where we can work on a letter: SoftwarePatents/CompetitivenessCouncil0305
update: letter sent (although it appears that the decision to take the Directive off the agenda may have been made before the letter was even sent). We should do everything in our power to show a lack of faith in the EU Council's draft before September 24. This draft now includes program claims, which means they are no longer concealing their intentions. FFII is calling on constituencies throughout Europe to call their government representatives to withdraw support for the text:
http://kwiki.ffii.org/LtrConsSend0406En. The page for Ireland is at:
http://kwiki.ffii.org/LtrConsSendIe0406En. The letter from IFSO has been archived here: SoftwarePatents/CouncilLetter1 After the reshuffle, we should write a new letter to Michéal Martin. We'll work on it here: SoftwarePatents/CouncilLetter2
Once more unto the breach. The directive has reappears suddenly on the Agricultural Council. SoftwarePatents/AgricultureLetter1
There is an opportunity now (January 2005) to ask for a restart of the process. Out letter asking for this is being drafted: SoftwarePatents/JuriLetter1
Before the parliament see this directive again we should contact the MEP's. New MEP's must be informed of the changes that have happened in the directive since it last reached the parliament, and the dangers of the new directive. Other MEP's should be reminded that the parliament's previously agreed formulation has been drastically changed.
Parties
(comments on the party positions are very approximate, but indicate trends; these groups do no necessarily vote uniformly).
European People's Party (EPP) (268 seats): It has been suggested their official line will be pro swpats because of Harbour (UK, Con) and Wuermeling (DE, CSU), some anti-swpat sub-groups
Party of European Socialists (PSE) (198 seats): Divided but many sub-groups anti swpatents
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) (88 seats): Split (Dutch VVD, Danish Venstre, UK and French (Fourtou party) pro, rest anti)
European Federation of Green Parties/European Free Alliance (Greens-EFA) (42 seats): Anti swpatents
European United Left / Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL) (41 seats): Anti swpatents
Independence and Democracy (IND/DEM) (37 seats): Successor to EDD, anti swpatents
Union for a Europe of Nations (UEN) (27 seats): Anti swpatents
(there are also 29 seats unaccounted for above, who are not aligned with any party)
Irish MEP's and politicians
Justin Mason cross referenced the
election results with the
FFII index (high numbers are good). To summarise his summary:
Brian Crowley (FF, UEN): 76.11
Sean O'Neachtain (FF, UEN): 76.11
There are quite a few MEP's with no established voting record
Simon Coveney (FG, PPE-DE)
Mairead McGuinness (FG, PPE-DE)
Gay Mitchell (FG, PPE-DE) (but see claimed pro swpats
here) Jim Higgins (FG, PPE-DE)
Proinsias De Rossa (Labour, PSE) (but claimed anti swpats in a letter to the Irish Times
transcribed here) Liam Aylward (FF, UEN)
Eoin Ryan (FF, UEN)
Kathy Sinnott (Ind, IND/DEM)
Marian Harkin (Ind, ALDE)
Mary Lou McDonald (SF, GUE-NGL)
Other links and information
The single most useful site is the
FFII site on software patents. They also have a
wiki (which contains some different information, so you have to look at both); the main FFII site is sometimes difficult to navigate, but the information there is veyr good.
Another site that looks like it contains useful information is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent
FFII has a very good short introduction page to point people to:
http://kwiki.ffii.org/ShortIntroEn
The following letter has been sent to the Committee of National Parliaments:
http://kwiki.ffii.org/LtrCosac040905En
Here is an
article from the July 7 2004 IHT. It is mostly concerned with change to the Dutch vote.
List of
Nominee Comissioners
http://europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/newcomm_en.htm
Piece about the Munich linux migration which was almost derailed by patent worries (and still might be).
FFII letter on the council text at
their wiki
FFII also have information on voting trends in the parties:
http://kwiki.ffii.org/index.cgi?SwpateuroparlEn
Text of several letters sent by list members (from the fsfe-ie list archives). Good points in these:
Ian Clarke's letter about the Morning Ireland piece, and
his letter about swpats
Fergal Daly's letter to Mary Harney
Justin Mason's letter
Ciaran's letter from IFSO
Malcolm's argument used in a debate on software patents in DCU:
SoftwarePatentsDebateDcu - takes an economics perspective
ZDNet article exposing serious flaws in a BSA study on software patents and SMEs:
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/print/?TYPE=story&AT=39205463-39020682t-21000005c Earlier ZDNet article:
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/print/?TYPE=story&AT=39203012-39020381t-10000022c Important points raised by the study and articles. Around 2000 SMEs have software patents in Europe. This may be an overestimate (including non-SMEs and non-European SMEs). This is just 0.008% of the 25.3 million SMEs in Europe (See EC below) or 0.018% of the 11 million that are members of
UEAPME. Around 20% of software patents in Europe are owned by SMEs. SMEs are responsible for half of Europe's turnover and employ more than 53 percent of Europe's workforce, according to EC.
EC:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/craft/. FFII page on the BSA -
SwpatbsaEn
Ifso in the press
Developing ideas in a cave Ciaran extensively quoted by electric news
More helpful articles and press releases
Watchdogs criticise misleading software patents campaign: Criticism of the "Campaign for Creativity" astroturfing
James Boyle in the FT June 30 2005. Mentions some useful studies near the end.