Brevets logiciels : France Against Software Patents

[Frederic Couchet <fcouchet AT april.org>]

                        France Against Software Patents

                 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.

Picture

   Christian Pierret at Metz University in 1998. (copyright EuroLinux -
   reproduction authorised)

   High Resolution available at
   http://www.aful.org/images/pierret-tux-big.jpg
   or
   http://petition.eurolinux.org/pr/pierret-tux-big.jpg


References

   EuroLinux 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
     EP 762304 - Trade warrant system
     EP 784279 - Stateless shopping cart for the web
     EP 756731 - Interactive information selection apparatus

   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.org

   The 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 AT fermigier.com +33-6 63 04 12 77
   Germany & Europe: Harmut Pilch, phm AT ffii.org +49-89 127 89 608
   Denmark and Northern Europe: Anne Østergaard, aoe AT sslug.dk
   Belgium: Nicolas Pettiaux, nicolas.pettiaux AT linuxbe.org

   Permanent URL for this PR

   http://petition.EuroLinux.org/pr/pr10.html
   http://petition.EuroLinux.org/pr/pr10.pdf

Legalese

   Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
   All other trademarks and copyrights are owned by their respective
   companies.

-- 
Petition contre les brevets logiciels      http://petition.eurolinux.org/
Frederic Couchet                     Tel: 06 60 68 89 31 / 01 49 22 67 89
APRIL                                               http://www.april.org/
Free Software Foundation Europe                 http://www.fsfeurope.org/