17.06. 2005
Internet
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Attac i Tyskland, Frankrig Italien og en række andre organisationer, arrangere en online demonstration mod softwarepatenter. Demonstrationen henvender sig til Europa Parlamentet som opfordres til at stemme det nye softwarepatent-direktiv ned.
I den officielle appel hedder det:
Call for an Online-Demonstration against Software Patents
We demonstrate against the patentability of software as implied by the new directive of the European Commission and the Council of Ministers.
There are many reasons against software patents. Every one of us shares at least some of those arguments:
- Patents strengthen monopolies
Software patents are the simplest possibility for the big software corporations like Microsoft, Siemens, etc. to get rid of the competition on the market. Whole areas of technology would practically become no-go areas through software patents.
Patents are also a danger to free software like Linux.
- Patents make software more expensive
Proper competition lowers prices. If Microsoft, Adobe, etc. block off competitors, they can sell their software more expensively. We would have to pay the bill.
- Patents block innovation
So far software development has only needed a computer, the necessary know-how and a good idea. With the patenting of software, this would be history. High costs for the registration of patents, license fees for existing patents and the risk of violating patents, make software development risky and not very attractive.
- Patents endanger hundreds of thousands of IT jobs throughout Europe.
80% of all IT jobs in Europe are to be found in small and medium enterprises and are therefore directly threatened by the directive.
- Patents harm developing and newly industrialising countries.
More than 90% of the existing software patents are held by the corporations of the industrialized countries. With patents the development of an independent software industry in the countries of the south will be massively hindered, because they could not export to the US and the EU.
We also protest against the obscure decision making of the directive in the Council of Ministers.
We think it is not democratic that several ministers voted in favour of the directive, against the will of their national parliaments.
The amendments of the European Parliament were ignored.
We call for a directive, that draws a clear line between software and technology and therefore rules out the patenting of software unambiguously.
We call upon the members of the European Parliament to vote against the directive of the EU Commission and to insist on the far-reaching amendments already decided by the European Parliament in September 2003.
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Det er muligt at deltage i demonstrationen, ved at oploade et billede til site Online Demonstration. Alle billederne anvendes i ovenstående collage - jo flere del, jo mindre grovkornet bliver billedet. Collagen vil til slut blive printet ud og medbragt til en fysisk demonstration udenfor Europa Parlamentet
Det danske site Softwarepatenter.dk har til formål at forklare problemerne ved softwarepatenter og hvorfor de har en skadelige effekt på både programmører, IT-virksomheder, almindelige virksomheder og informationssamfundet. Her findes analyser og baggrundsmateriale om softwarepatenter.
Hos forbundet PROSA ligger temaet Softwarepatenter. Ud over at se, hvad PROSA mener om sagen, er der et tre gode oversigter: Pressen om softwarepatenter, Artikler om Softwarepatenter og Redegørelser, høringssvar m.v.
SSLUG (Skåne Sjælland Linux User Group) har en lignede dokumentsamling om Softwarepatenter.
Online Demonstration
PROSA: Softwarepatenter
SSLUG: Softwarepatenter
Softwarepatenter.dk