Everybody, this is really important – particularly if you’re in Europe (ok, so I live in Australia – but I’m Dutch and I still have a vote there). If you are also a voting European and can -in any way- make a noise about this, now is the time to do so!

Software patents are very bad for business. There are quite a few examples of silly software patents, good for a laugh. Unless, of course, you are a company or independent developer working on some nifty piece of new software, and you find yourself on the wrong end of a “but this programming trick is patented by us” claim.

As any programmer knows, we reinvent the wheel many times a day, it’s all just rehashing well-known algorithms and methods in a different way to accomplish what our program-to-be requires. Doing patent searches alone would cripple or destroy the viability of many software development businesses. And, many patent claims are so obscure that it’s virtually impossible to even find possible clashes.

So what will happen in the real world? Well, you can develop in blissful ignorance, until of course you become successful – that will make you visible, and the vultures will show up. Guaranteed. Are you excited yet?
Or perhaps you should just make sure you’re not successful enough to be interesting for the vultures – great!

Ok… that’s my concise opinion on this. Below is the press release:

EUROPEAN MID-SIZED COMPANIES DON’T GIVE UP THE FIGHT AGAINST SOFTWARE PATENTS

Brussels (27 June 2005) — Last week, the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee narrowly voted in favor of software patents, but for some, the fight has only just begun. Today a group of mid-sized European IT companies
announced a joint effort directed at the parliament’s second reading plenary vote, which is scheduled for Wednesday of next week (6 July). 1&1 Internet, CAS Software, CSB-System, GMX, Materna, MySQL and Opera collectively employ more than 4,000 people, and are seriously concerned over the negative implications that the present proposal would have to their businesses and to Europe’s economy as a whole. Two of them are Internet companies, four are vendors of proprietary (“closed-source”) software, and one is Europe’s largest open-source software developer.

This effort is supported by venture investment group Benchmark Capital and Danny Rimer, a partner at Index Ventures.

Florian Mueller, who used to be Europe’s most prominent campaigner against software patents for some time, has returned to Brussels in order to deliver the group’s message to politicians and to select media. In 2004, Mr. Mueller founded the aggressive NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign, which is now run by non-profit organization FFII. “In the face of the threat to all of us”, Mr. Mueller says that he has accepted once again to interrupt his own computer game project and to work against software patents. “All we need now is for the parliament to pass some amendments so that the legislative process doesn’t end like this in a few months’ time”, the campaigner explained. “We’ve got to get into extra time, like Liverpool FC in this year’s Champions League final. It won’t be easy but it can be done.”

At this stage, he rests his hopes on the parliament: “There are some politicians who have put the interests of big international corporations above the principles of their own parties, and there is a lot of dishonesty in this debate, but I am convinced that most MEPs are responsible and ready to help. They did it in the first reading in 2003. They can do it again.”

In a joint statement, the newly formed alliance calls on other companies “to take serious action between now and the vote on 6 July to get our message across to MEPs”. The group stresses that “it would be unrealistic to believe
that everyone understands the issue of software patents. We all have to spend time and money on lobbying or otherwise we’ll lose without a fight, and in that case, we’ll all be forced to spend much more time and money on dealing with individual patent assertions.”

For more information, see NoSoftwarePatents.com, and SWPAT.FFFI.ORG.