http://kwiki.ffii.org/?LtrObjectwebMeps0405En
English Translation of the ObjectWeb? Consortium President Letter
To the French Candidates to the European elections
Paris, 14 May 2004
Object: Open Letter on Software Patentability in Europe
Dear Ms., Dear Mr.,
I am writing to you as a European citizen and in my capacity of President of the ObjectWeb? consortium. I wish to draw your attention to the critical stakes underlying software patentability issues, that will be on the Parliament agenda after your election.
A European directive that will allow the granting of patents on software, services or ideas would have a disastrous effect on the European software and computing industry. It would weaken the technological independence of Europe by undermining the regulatory framework that protects the autonomy of its public and private information systems. Moreover, it would be an economic absurdity: recent conclusions from the US Federal trade Commission have confirmed the counter-productive effect of patents in the software domain. You should also note that software patents would be used as a weapon against free / open source software, which is increasingly being adopted by many European and world wide governments.
We draw your attention to the core importance of information technology for the future of our democracies. Whether for education, citizen information, or electronic administration services, the digital democracy will rest on information systems whose function must be developed in true transparency, according to the democratic process. Software will play a role everywhere, and its control through patents could result in de facto and arbitrary regulations, with extremely detrimental consequences for the daily life of European citizens.
The democratic vote of the European Parliament resulted in an intelligent and moderate position, it should not be discarded under the influence of organisations that do not represent the citizens of Europe, and moreover, are under suspicion of connection with economic monopolies.
Beyond these considerations of substance, I wish to state my deep concern on how the European Commission and Council now propose to discard the amendments from the vote of the European Parliament on 24 September 2003 on directive proposal 20002/0047(COD). The desire of the Irish Presidency of the European Council to discard the Parliament position is impossible for us to understand. Such an attitude can only result in a major crisis of confidence in the European democratic institutions for the citizens of Europe.
As president of the ObjectWeb? consortium, which brings together more than 35 international companies, I enclose for your attention a whitepaper developed within ObjectWeb? on software patentability issues. You will see that this text does not come from people alien to the world of software. On the contrary, it was produced by researchers and business-oriented company staff who have been actively engaged in software and IT innovation from many years. This whitepaper synthetises the reasons for software to remain outside the scope of patents and proposes a world wide harmonisation on the basis of the existing European legislation.
I remain available for any additional information on the subject, and would be happy to discuss this subject with you in person if you deem useful.
Sincerely yours,
Jean-Pierre Laisné President of the ObjectWeb? Consortium