ZDNet: Developers Protest Software Patents

["Seth Johnson" <seth.johnson@realmeasures.dyndns.org>]

> http://news.com.com/2100-1008-5069279.html?tag=nl


Developers gather to protest patents 


By Matthew Broersma 
August 28, 2003


Several hundred demonstrators assembled in front of the European 
Parliament building in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday to protest a 
software patents directive that critics say would wreak havoc on 
Europe's software industry.

The physical protest was accompanied by an online campaign that saw 
more than 600 Web sites, including prominent open-source software 
sites, replace their front pages with a warning about the directive. 

The protest centers on the proposed Directive on the Patentability of 
Computer-Implemented Inventions, which would, critics say, legitimize 
patents on business processes and on ideas software uses. In the 
United States, where such patents are allowed, large corporations such 
as IBM routinely stockpile patents to be used against competitors--
usually to the detriment of smaller companies. 

Opponents want the directive to be rejected when it comes to a 
parliamentary vote on Monday.  They also want it to be refashioned in 
more restrictive terms. Economists, software developers, scientists 
and some large European information technology companies have 
criticized the directive.

The protest's organizers, which included software developer and 
digital rights lobbying groups from France, Germany, Belgium, 
Catalonia, Spain and Denmark, estimated that between 400 and 500 
people took part in the demonstration, with 500 the maximum permitted 
by Brussels police.

The protestors, who carried black balloons, wore black T-shirts with 
slogans such as "Patent inflation is not a victimless crime," "Protect 
innovation against software patents" and "Software patents kill 
innovation" in English and French. Banners read: "Software patents 
kill efficient software development" and "Innovation not litigation."

For the benefit of onlookers and the news media, protestors carried 
out a mock funeral before tombstones reading, "Maybe you'll be next!" 
in French and German.

A troupe of mimes in black masks acted out a parable about software 
patents, involving a fistfight between a businessman in a suit and a 
scruffy, young software developer.

The outdoor demonstration was followed by a press conference in the 
parliament building that featured talks by Henk Barendregt, chair of 
the Foundation of Mathematics and Computer Science at Nijmegen 
University in the Netherlands, one of the computer scientists who is 
petitioning against the directive; Reinier Bakels, an attorney; and 
Hartmut Pilch, the president of the Foundation for a Free Information 
Infrastructure (FFII), which helped organize the protest.

Arlene McCarthy, the Labour MEP (Member of the European Parliament) 
responsible for steering the proposal through the European Parliament, 
has argued that the directive is necessary to harmonize the patent 
regimes of the European Union's member states and to give inventors a 
consistent legal framework for patenting their computer-related 
innovations.

Some opponents of the directive say they support the idea of software 
patents, but believe the directive implements them in a way that will 
create more problems than it solves.

Matthew Broersma of ZDNet UK reported from London.