Campaign against software patents

Software patents are a great problem for the software market, for free (and not free) software and for programmers and users in general. Despite the law does not allow to patent software, the European Patent Office (EPO) has granted lots of patents for software (estimated more than 30 000). It is not quite clear that these patents could be used on a lawsuit, but they cause fear and juridical uncertainity. And now the European Commission wants to change the law rather than have the EPO abide by the law. To that effect, it proposed a directive writen by the BSA (Microsoft, Adobe, etc).

In Caliu we are trying to stop it explaining the problems it would produce, picking up information, contacting the press, politicians, etc.

Directive Consequences

• More monopolies and oligopolies in software. Less quality software, more expensive.
• SME discriminated in favor of big companies, and some bussiness models rather than others.
• Possible hidden changes in fiscality of software companies (and others).
• Loss of competition in front of the USA and Japan.
• Ineficiency for diversion of effort/resources from creative work to legal tasks. Great difficulties and law uncertainty on technical work.
• Individual rights (freedom of expression and to be informed of citizens, working rights of software professionals).
• Policy in information society, free software and technological development jeopardised.
• Overload for the patent system. Reinforcement of an European Patent Office under little democratic control that accumulates criticism.

Unbelievable? Read a more detailed explanation of the situation.

Documentation

• Explanation of problematics (updated on 29/9/2002 and partialy on 16/11/2002).
• Argumental synopsis. Why software patents are bad? (in Catalan)
• Patents slowing down innovation. Article by Josep Monés in Unidiversitat (in Catalan)
• Informative leaflet  (in Catalan, but similar to this English draft)
• Comments to the note by the rapporteur in the JURI Commitee of the European Parliament. It gives an idea of how the EuroParliament debate is going.
• Valoration of the voting on the JURI commitee of the European Parliament
• Fictitious tale about what would happen to an European software professional if the directive is approved. (In Catalan)
• A can Ribot, malcrien el porc - Article about the EPO for Illacrua magazine. May 2002 (In Catalan)
• Patents de programari i dret d'escollir- Article published in Softcatalà. April 2003 (In Catalan)
• Summary of opinions from the syndical union of EPO workers.
• Codecision process (in Catalan)
• Agenda / events chronology(in Catalan)
• Article about the hearing on the European Parliament
• Comments to the working documents of European Parliament JURI Commitee about the directive of patentability of computer programs:
  • Comments to the Bakels study about software patentability.
  • Comments to the summary of reporter Arlene McCarthy about facts related to the directive.
  • Comments to the summary of reporter Arlene McCarthy about the need and unsuitability of the directive.
• Comments to the position of EICTA (a company association)  (in Spanish)
• Contribution to the software patentability conference of the Information and Knowledge Society Commission of the Spanish Senate (in Spanish)
• Problematics summary (March 1, 2002, in Catalan)

Documentation translated to Catalan

(here links to the English versions)

• Call for action (with Eurolinux)  FFII
• Directive proposal  to clarify software non-patentability  FFII
• Patentability Workbench  FFII
• European Software Patent Horror Gallery  FFII
• European Software Patents: Choosen Examples  FFII
• Software Patents in Accion  FFII
• European Software Patents: Comprehensive Documentation  FFII
• European Software Patent Statistics  FFII
• Art 52 EPC: Interpretation and Revision  FFII
• FFII News  FFII

Press releases

• 3/2/2005 El comité JURI del Parlament Europeu demana reiniciar la directiva de patents de programari. (Catalan)
• 31/1/2005 Organisations ask for renegotiation of the software patent directive and join thousands of thanks for the delay (Spanish, English, German, Catalan)
• 22/12/2004 El Consell de la UE ajorna la decisió sobre la directiva de patents de programari (Spanish)
• 20/12/2004 Caos al Consell de Ministres de la UE amb la directiva de patents de programari (catalan)
• 2/12/2004 Spanish Industry Minister Montilla says the Spanish government is still against software patents (Catalan, Spanish,English)
• 1/6/2004 Concentració contra les patents de programari
• 19/5/2004 El Consell de ministres de la UE aprova la legalització de les patents de programari i l'estat Espanyol s'hi oposa
• 15/5/2004 Oposition to software patents increases in the Council (and outside)
• 7/5/2004 "Ambassadors" to the UE arrange for legalisation of software patents (in English) (in Catalan)
• 4/5/2004 Document leaked from Council and other news (in Catalan)
• 26/4/2004 Obscurity in the Council and other news (in Catalan)
• 29/8/2003 Èxit de les protestes contra les patents de programari. El Parlament Europeu endarrereix la votació. (in Catalan)
• 20/8/2003 August 27: Demonstrations against EU Software Patent Plans
• 30/6/2003 Vote delayed on the European Parliament  FFII
• 25/6/2003 European Parliament divided about software patents  gnu-friends.org
• 14/6/2003 Software patents directive voted on the JURI Commitee of the European Parliament (in Catalan)
• 17/4/2003 30 computer science authorities asked the European Parliament to reject software patents (in Catalan, French and English)
• 08/02/2003 Ja no es pot transmetre vídeo ni àudio comprimit  (in Catalan)
• 24/11/2002 Més crítics als EUA sobre les patents de programari (in Catalan)
• 21/11/2002 Conferència sobre patents de programari al Parlament Europeu  (in Catalan)
• 28/10/2002 Escàndol als EUA per extorsió amb patents i debat europeu a Aalborg  (in Catalan)
• 18/7/2002 Apareix una patent sobre JPEG  (in Catalan)
• 8/4/2002 Microsoft ataca la GPL amb patents  (in Catalan)

Proinnova news  (in Spanish)

FFII news

Letters  

• First message to politicians and institutions.(in Catalan)
• Letter sent (19.4.2002) to CIDEM (Centre d'Informació i Desenvolupament Empresarial)(in Catalan)
• Letter sent (19.4.2002) to DURSI (Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació)(in Catalan)
• Letter template to send to known informatic companies for asking to mobilise against software patents (in Catalan)
• Letter to the Spanish Secretary of State for the EU. (PDF, LyX, TeX) (in Spanish)(in Catalan)

Multimedia

• Web banners, images for physical banners, leaflets or stickers and other art against software patents. From the first online protest and from the second one.Other similar material.
• Poster with patent examples.
• OpenBSD v. 3.5 song (ogg, MP3 and text, in English) satirises the software patent problem they had.
• A one hour radio program (in Real Audio, in Catalan) from the program l'Internauta about software patents (the week before the European Parliament plenary vote in frist reading in 24 september 2003).
• Materials (audio, video, photos, several formats and languages) on the conference titled "Software Patents: the choice is yours" of 17 September 2003, just before the plenary vote in first reading in the European Parliament.
• European Parliament JURI committee recordings. (Real Audio, but also ogg, I forgot in what language).
• Photos and press clips from the 27 August 2003 demonstration in Brussels..
• Annotated photos from the cofnerences in Brussels 7 and 8 may 2003.
• Traditional German song Die Gedanken sind frei/patentiert sung by a lead singer of the Volksoper in Vienne
  • Sound file (ogg, German)
  • Words/Lirics

Others

• Work to do (in Catalan)