[Hudlug] Software Patents

[Anne Wilson]

There has been a lot of discussion about the proposed Software Patents 
legislation currently under debate in the Euro Parliament.  This 
would be a good time to air your views to your MEP.  This is what I 
wrote:

<quote>
To: emcmillan at europarl.eu.int, lindamcavan at lindamcavanmep.org.uk, 
timothy at leedsne.demon.co.uk, mail at davidbowe.demon.co.uk, 
diana at dianawallismep.org.uk, r.goodwill at farmline.com, 
richard at corbett-euro.demon.co.uk

It is with mounting alarm that I have read of the proposals to 
implement Software Patents.  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 also 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 would 
stifle creative work.

The passing of software patent legislation would naturally benefit big 
business and penalise the small and medium-size enterprise, as there 
is no possibility of his competing in a legal argument.

The ability of any enterprise to patent a method of presentation, a 
method of training, or a 'look' of software is not in the interest of 
the consumer.

Certain large businesses in the field of operating systems desire to 
outlaw reverse engineering of their software.  However, without this 
practice it is impossible for third party software and hardware 
drivers to be written without the co-operation of the originators.  
Like many others, I have suffered from finding that drivers for my 
hardware was unavailable, since the manufacturer of the hardware did 
not wish to co-operate with writers of my chosen operating system.

It would appear that the proposals for EU legislation would have grave 
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 yoiu are unfamiliar with the GPL, may I 
refer you to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html ?

I ask your help in protecting 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 our rights.

Anne Wilson
Netherthong HD9 3EQ
</quote>

The reason for putting the postcode in is that it demonstrates that I 
am in the constituency area.  All the MEPs named are responsible for 
Yorkshire and Humberside.

Anne
-- 
Registered Linux User No.293302
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