Apr 08

Software patents within the European Union

Tag: Politics — Adam Wright @ 5:00 pm

“Intellectual property” is an area about which I feel strongly, and which I’m sure all programmers have opinions about. However, if you’re a developer within the EU who doesn’t have an opinion, you need to form one now. If you don’t, then the law will shortly be changed to make any you later choose moot.

The union is currently trying to pass a directive that would fundamentally allow the patenting of software methods within all EU member states. I, like most developers, feel this would be a disaster for our abilties to continue developing world class software. Indeed, I’ve yet to find a programmer in favour of this directive – it seems to be supported solely by lawyers, and huge companies who would love to have another weapon to bludgeon down competition.

Writing about the specific problems with the directive (and the underhand tactics some members of the commission are using to force it through) would be redundant – there is an excellent site at http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ that everyone should visit. Once you’ve finished being astonished by what is being attempted, I encourage you to write to your MPs and MEPs to ensure that this directive does not pass.

I have placed my most recent letter, to the MEPs for South England online here. Feel free to use it as inspiration for a letter of your own, but you must write now, or we’ll have years in court fighting down a law that should never have been passed.

6 Responses to “Software patents within the European Union”

  1. Archgrove - Implicit Definition » Top marks for the Green party says:
    April 12th, 2005 at 5:40 pm

    [...] y landed on my desk this morning, less than half a working day since I sent my letter (see Software patents within the EU). Post marked Sunday, the Gree [...]

  2. Archgrove - Implicit Definition » A 2 working day response from the UKIP says:
    April 13th, 2005 at 11:46 am

    [...] Farage (The South East UK Independence Party MEP) has weighed in with their response to my letter. As expected, it sides with the anti patent lobby, [...]

  3. Archgrove - Implicit Definition » No new replies today says:
    April 14th, 2005 at 11:50 am

    [...] s today Filed under: Politics, Code — adamw @ 11:50 am No new replies to my software patents letter today. I’m still waiting fo [...]

  4. Archgrove - Implicit Definition » Again, no new responses on Software Patents says:
    April 15th, 2005 at 11:08 pm

    [...] ramming — Adam Wright @ 11:08 pm Again, the big 3 parties failed to reply to my letter. If nothing arrives tomorrow, that’s an e [...]

  5. Archgrove - Implicit Definition » Daniel Hannan responds says:
    April 19th, 2005 at 3:00 pm

    [...] :00 pm Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP for South East England, has responded to my letter regarding software patents. Unfortunately, he does [...]

  6. Archgrove - Implicit Definition » Software patents update says:
    June 5th, 2005 at 1:46 pm

    [...] Filed under: Uncategorized — Adam Wright @ 1:46 pm Nearly 2 months after the letters were sent, here is the breakdown. Lib Dems – N [...]