[A2k] Proposals for the section of the Paris Accord on Software

[James Love]

This is just to get the discussion on software started....jl

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Proposals for the section of the Paris Accord on Software

1. Concentration of ownership and control of software operating
systems and applications presents risks and dangers to programmers
and users.

2.  Microsoft's monopoly in terms of PC operating systems and office
productivity applications harms users and programmers, and must be
addressed by governments, programmers and purchasers of software.

3.  Programmers of software need access to certain interface data, in
order to design products that work with other products.

4.  Some high quality software products, standards, and protocols,
can and will be produced without regard to ownership or control of
software code, or any expectation of remuneration or other pecuniary
reward from the sale or licensing of the code.   Other important
software products, standards and protocols are unlikely to be
produced without an expectation of economic rewards from the sale or
licensing of the code.

5.  Consumers agree that infringement of software applications by
undermines economic incentives for firms to employ programmers to
develop new products.  Programmers agree that excessive prices for
software programs contribute to infringement of software copyrights.

6.  Commercial software products should not be designed to lock-in
users to particular vendors.

7.  Business models for software development should reward
programmers for making users better off, and not reward programmers
or software publishers for anticompetitive and anti-consumer practices.

8.  Open document formats are essential for the development of a
competitive and open software industry.

9.  Users and programmers should lobby large buyers of software to
demand open document formats, and other measures that promote
interoperability.

10.  Proprietary technologies that undermine the World Wide Web
should be discouraged.

11.  Experience has shown that the costs of extending patent
protection to software exceed the benefits.


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James Love, CPTech / www.cptech.org / mailto:james.love@cptech.org /
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / mobile +1.202.361.3040

"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks."  Bill Walton