On Tue, 2003-10-07 at 20:30, Dick Gevers wrote: > --BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-- > Hash: SHA1 > > Hi Douglas, all, <snip> > It`s not useless to send, `cause the EP vote is just a sort of advice to > the EU Commission - as I understand it - which has to decide yet how they > handle the proposed law. So IMO the MEP`s still need reinforcing, if only to > give them unbiased awareness of what is at stake. > > Personally I found Anne`s letter so very good that I didn`t change a word; > just added a few lines of introduction in Dutch. <snip>
Good, thanks. I've written to the 8 MEPs for the Eastern Region UK. Like you, I found Anne's letter excellent - mine is a straight crib with a few additions. I hope she doesn't mind [Letter follows] Maybe we could do with a min-TWiki to hone our arguments for future use! DougB "...I am writing to you as one of your constituents in the Eastern Region for the European Parliament. I understand that the McCarthy report on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions has passed its first reading in the European Parliament with some limited amendments, and is now awaiting its second reading. This legislation causes considerable alarm to me and many other consumers among the European public, whose interests we look to Parliament to protect; and I would ask you to consider the following: Software is written by individuals and groups of individuals. As authors they normally have and retain copyright (except, I presume, where they are working for a company who would then own the copyright). Existing laws are adequate to protect their copyright. Patent law was, I understand, intended to protect inventors, requiring that the object to be patented was an original idea. It is common knowledge that 'prior art' generally precludes such a patent being granted. It is difficult to see how writing computer code can be classed as an original idea. Logically, if software were to be patentable, then so could a book. It is a consideration that patents are expensive, create a great deal of administrative work, and are granted slowly and for a lengthy time period, while the life cycle of software is short. This can only stifle creative work. Worse, the legislation broadens the word "invention" to mean far more than the circumscribed definition it carries elsewhere, giving enormous scope for interfering with the development of software innovation by competitors. Moreover, the ability of any enterprise to patent what is merely a method of presentation, a method of training, or a 'look' of software is certainly not in the interest of the consumer. The passing of software patent legislation will naturally benefit big business and penalise the small and medium-size enterprise. The legislation has introduced imprecise terms that create fertile ground for legal argument and can only tilt the advantage still further towards big businesses with large financial resources. Small enterprises have limited possibilities of surviving in this environment. Certain large businesses in the field of operating systems desire to outlaw reverse engineering of their software. Since most hardware manufacturers are already tied in to them by agreements, this will give them an unchallengeable monopoly, because without reverse engineering it will be impossible for third party software and hardware drivers to be written if the originators are unwilling to co-operate. And they are usually not willing. Like many others, I have suffered from finding that drivers for my hardware were unavailable, since the manufacturer of the hardware did not choose to co-operate with writers of my chosen operating system. It would appear that the proposals for EU legislation would have serious implications for the General Public License. It is a matter of grave concern that individuals would be denied the right to decide the conditions under which their work is released. The GPL gives clear rights and responsibilities to users of the software concerned. The original author owns copyright, but this is essentially a model of co-operative working. If you are unfamiliar with the GPL, could I ask you to refer to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html ? I ask your help in defending our rights, as citizens of the European Union, to own our own work without hindrance, and to make our own decisions about the future of our work. Please protect us from the vested interests that seek to take away these rights. Can I please ask you to subject the legislation to the most critical scrutiny when it returns for a second reading to Parliament, and to ensure that it has strong safeguards for our interests, the European public?........."
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