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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>FYI </FONT><FONT face=Arial>from Amnesty International.
(apologies for cross posting)</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><BR><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><A
href="http://news.com.com/2100-1012-5068007.html">http://news.com.com/2100-1012-5068007.html</A></FONT>
<BR><BR><FONT size=2>Patent battle to culminate in Brussels
</FONT><BR><BR><BR><FONT size=2>By Matthew Broersma </FONT><BR><FONT
size=2>Special to CNET News.com</FONT> <BR><FONT size=2>August 26, 2003, 8:25
AM PT</FONT> <BR><BR><BR><FONT size=2>More than 600 Web sites plan to take
part in an online protest against a proposed European law on software patents
that's timed to coincide with a real-life protest in Brussels, Belgium, on
Wednesday. </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><BR><FONT size=2>Those rallying against the proposal,
including some of Europe's most prominent scientists and software businesses,
believe its current draft would open the door to the patenting of software and
business processes, effectively shutting out software competition from small
and medium-size developers. </FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>The Foundation for a
Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), which is organizing the online
protest, is urging Web sites to temporarily replace their front pages with a
note of protest. Some sites are also redirecting people to a petition and a
call for action against the proposed directive that regards patents of
computer-implemented inventions, which will be submitted to the European
Parliament for approval on Sept. 1. </FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>The call
for action has already amassed more than 7,000 names since earlier this year,
including several members of European Parliament and developers such as Opera
Software, while the more general petition has accumulated more than 170,000
names. </FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>"Leaders of the scientific communities and
software business world took the directive proposal apart and condemned it in
every respect. Yet in June, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Commission
endorsed this proposal with further amendments that make it even worse,"
Benjamin Henrion, one of the protest organizers, said in a statement. "More
and more people are now seeing this very clearly." </FONT><BR><BR><FONT
size=2>The FFII and software-oriented groups such as EuroLinux are also
organizing a rally that's planned for Wednesday, near the European Parliament
in Brussels. The participants will be carrying banners with slogans such as
"Software patents kill efficient software development" and the more pithy
"Innovation, not litigation." </FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>They are expected to
be joined by a group of interested mimes, which also participated in a May
demonstration that attracted 200 participants. The protest will be followed by
briefings in the parliament building. </FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>A June vote
on the controversial proposal was postponed amid criticism by members of
European Parliament that the legislation would institute a U.S.-style patent
regime that would be detrimental to European small businesses and open-source
software developers. </FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>The proposed
software-patenting legislation is the result of a European Commission effort
to clarify patenting rules as they apply to "computer-implemented inventions,"
a term that can be taken to include software. The patent offices of various
European Union member states currently have different criteria for accepting
the validity of software-related patents, a situation that the commission's
proposal aims to remedy. </FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>However, opponents of the
suggested legislation charge that the ambiguity of the current draft would
effectively allow most software to be patented, a situation which currently
exists in the United States and which critics have compared to allowing a
monopoly on the ideas in novels. </FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>Writing in The
Guardian in June, Arlene McCarthy, the British Labor member of European
Parliament who is guiding the software patents proposal through that body,
asserted that the legislation would "provide legal certainty for European
software inventors" and protect the investments of small European software
companies. </FONT><BR><BR><FONT size=2>"It is time some of the 'computer
rights campaigners' got real," she wrote. "Patents for software inventions
will not go away. It is infinitely better for the EU to harmonize laws across
the EU with a view to limiting patentability, than to continue with the mess
of national courts and European Patent Office systems, and the drift towards
U.S. patent models." </FONT><BR></DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>