Economic-Majority supports Rocard JURI amendments

PRESS RELEASE FFII -- [ Europe / economy / ICT ]

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Economic-Majority supports Rocard JURI amendments
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20 June 2005 - The Economic Majority speaks out against software
patents, loud and clear. Even before the official launch of the
campaign, more than 800 companies representing over 17,000 employees
and a turnover of more than 1.5 billion Euro have pledged their
support. Donating already over 91,000 euro to the fight against
software patents, they put their money where their mouth is. The FFII
invites all concerned companies to undersign the declaration at
http://www.economic-majority.com

Hundreds of European companies, along with a handful of US
enterprises, are joining forces to prove the European Commission's
assertion that there is an "economic majority in favour of software
patents" is wrong. The Commission concluded this from a survey it held
in 2000, where over 90% of respondents were against extending
patentability. Most of those were discarded due to supposedly not
being economically representative.

The campaign website also already contains 47 testimonies of various
companies, in which they describe how software patents would directly
affect their business. "Software patents are expropriation, the
taking-by-force of copyrighted works using dubious legalistic tools",
says Pieter Hintjens, CEO of the Belgian company iMatix, whose sms@
product allows for instant deployment of web-administrated sms
services.

Indeed, one of the first concerns mentioned on the campaign website is
that "we need to be sure that we own what we write". Software patents
are often said to be complementary to copyright, by covering the
"underlying ideas" as opposed to the actual implementation. In
practice, they severely weaken other forms of intellectual property
such as copyright, time to market, trade secrets and trademarks. They
are not just complementary, but take away other rights as well.

Winfried Sch=E4fer, CEO of the German Pentaprise GmbH, confirms:
"Developing customized software always is overshadowed by the risk
that one spends ample time into design and implementation of software
mechanisms and then later it turns out that the chosen approach runs
into patent risks." The Economic Majority therefore calls for strictly
limiting the patent system to applied natural science.

Andrej Mertelj, CEO of Datalab, a Slovenian Enterprise Resource
Planning solutions company, notes effects on venture funding: "The
hardest hit came from the financiers. Since the environment of
software developers was drastically changed with the possible
codification of software patents, the future looks uncertain. Our
company planned to start a second round of financing with invited
venture capital. Due to uncertainties and potential large threats from
the major players we expect to pay a higher discount on our offering,
effectively raising less cash."

Today, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee will
vote on the amendments tabled to Mr Rocard's report on the software
patents directive. The concerns of the Economic Majority are addressed
by many of the amendments tabled to this JURI report by Mr Rocard
(PSE) himself, Mrs Kauppi (EPP), Mrs Kudrycka (EPP), Mr Zwiefka (EPP),
Mrs Frassoni (VERD/EFA), Mrs Lichtenberger (VERD/EFA) and Mr
Bertinotti (GUE/NGL). The FFII urges JURI members to follow Mr
Rocard's or the FFII's voting list, available from
http://www.ffii.org/amend


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More information
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The economic majority against software patents
   http://www.economic-majority.com

Testimonies
   http://www.economic-majority.com/testimony

FFII voting list for amendments tabled to Rocard's JURI report
   http://www.ffii.org/amend

Permananent link to this press release
   http://wiki.ffii.org/Empr050620En


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Contact details
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Erik Josefsson
[email protected]
FFII Brussels Representative
+32-484-082063

Steffen Maas
[email protected]
FFII Brussels Organisation
+32-484-561020


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About the FFII -- http://www.ffii.org
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The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a
non-profit association registered in several European countries, which
is dedicated to the spread of data processing literacy. The FFII
supports the development of public information goods based on
copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 500 members,
1,400 companies and 80,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act
as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights
(intellectual property) in data processing. The FFII maintains
offices in Munich and Brussels and national supporter groups in most
European countries.