[Upd-discuss] [ffii] Unanimous Bundestag (German Parliament) vote against software patents
Zapopan Martin Muela-Meza
zapopanmuela@yahoo.com
Sat, 19 Feb 2005 09:30:41 -0800 (PST)
[ffii] Unanimous Bundestag (German Parliament) vote against software
patents
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PRESS RELEASE FFII -- [ Germany / Economy / Computing ]
Unanimous Bundestag (German Parliament) vote against
software
patents
===================================================================
Berlin, 17 February-- The German Bundestag unanimously
passed a
motion which strongly attacks the Council version of the
European
software patents directive. As such, the German Bundestag
joins
growing the club of national Parliaments which have spoken
out
against software patents. These actions make the Council's
attempts
to continue trying to push it through look more desperate
and
unworldly by the day.
The Council of Ministers version was generally considered
to be
completely inappropriate: "I think that here in the German
Bundestag
we were able to quickly reach an agreement about the fact
that the
state of the discussion at the EU level leaves many central
questions open", stated MP Dirk Manzewski (SPD). MP Rainer
Funke
(FDP) elaborated: "The necessary and meaningful unification
of
patenting practice should not be allowed to lead to an
extension of
substantive patent law."
MP Dr. Günter Krings (CDU/CSU) emphasized that a directive
"that is
worth its name", needs a concrete definition of
technicality and
must exclude program claims. He was happy to be in time
with the
Bundestag resolution:
"When we dealt with this issue in the Bundestag about four
months
ago, probably nobody expected that the EU Council of
Ministers would
not yet have passed the Political Agreement negotiated in
May. It is
rare for the passing of a resolution draft to be postponed
this
often. The directive draft has become a buck that EU
Council
presidencies pass to their successors. After the Dutch
government
found that nut too hard to crack, it is now up to the
Luxemburgers."
In addition to the Dutch Tweede Kamer, the Spanish Senado
and the
Bundestag votes, he also praised the European Parliament:
"Our MEP colleagues have now also opted for a restart of
the
legislative process in the European Parliament and to
search for a
constructive solution. The German government should take
this motion
at heart, as it is notably also supported by the
representatives of
the EPP. Now it's time for the Minister of Justice base its
negotiations in Brussels on the interest of software
developers and
their employees. We are waiting for deeds."
Manzewski ("if even I as SPD legal specialist had to
swallow when
reading some of the formulations ...") and Krings thanked
the
employees of all groups for their help during the
negotiation
process, namely Mr Nermin Fazlic and Mrs Petra Marmann
(SPD), Mr
Oliver Passek and Mrs Franziska Vilmar (Greens), Mr Ole
Jani (FDP)
and Mr Jörn Henkel (CDU). It is thanks to their
cooperation, "that
German speaks with one voice in Brussels" (MP Jerzy Montag,
Greens).
MP Jörg Tauss (SPD) said: "Incidentally, this refutes an
old
prejudice that computer scientists generally are apolitical
or
technocratic. They are not at all 'specialists without
spirit' in
the way Max Weber had predicted for the outcome of the
societal
rationalisation process. They are highly qualified,
discerning and
committed often young persons standing up for their
convictions
and taking part in political processes."
"The present motion especially intends to partially correct
a
deficit of the Brussels conciliations. The central concern
for me is
the obstinate ignorance that Brussels has shown to the real
European
and German economical interests in the software field. It
is the
SMEs that are the vectors of innovation in Germany's and
Europe's IT
field", he added.
Holger Blasum (FFII) comments: "Past Tuesday, entrepreneurs
and
software developers were looking for signals from the
Ministry of
Justice when demonstrating at its Berlin Mohrenstraße site.
The
restart option submitted by the Conference of Presidents
yesterday
opens new doors. All groups in the Bundestag deserve praise
for
their clear position. In so far the government is
concerned, I
follow Dr. Krings: 'We are waiting for deeds.' The
possibilities to
act are plentiful now."
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Background
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* "Intergroup motion against software patents in the
Bundestag",
http://wiki.ffii.org/Bundestag050217De
* "Conference of Group Presidents in the European
Parliament
demands restart of the software patent directive",
http://wiki.ffii.org/Restart050217En
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Contact
========================================================================
Hartmut Pilch, phm@ffii.org, +49-89-18979927
(German/English/French)
Holger Blasum, blasum@ffii.org, +49-174-7313590
(German/English)
Christian Cornelssen, ccorn@cs.tu-berlin.de
(German/English)
Andre Rebentisch, arebenti@web.de (German/English)
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About the FFII -- http://www.ffii.org
==========================================================================
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII)
is a
non-profit association registered in several European
countries,
which is dedicated to the spread of data processing
literacy. FFII
supports the development of public information goods based
on copyright, free
competition, open standards. More than 500 members, 1,200
companies
and 75,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as
their voice
in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights
(intellectual
property) in data processing.
=====
ENG: "Corporations are not democratic institutions --their directors and managers owe no accountability to anyone but the shareholders that employ them."
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ESP: "Las corporaciones (empresas) no son instituciones democráticas: a sus directores y gerentes no se les puede fincar responsabilidades ante nadie excepto ante sus accionistas que les emplean."
-- Bakan, Joel. (2004). The Corporation. The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power : La corporación (empresa). La búsqueda patológica de ganancias y poder. London: Constable & Robinson, p. 151
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