Rinnoviamo l'invito a tutti i piccoli imprenditori/professionisti a organizzarsi. Contattate i vostri rappresentanti al Parlamento Europeo. Un esempio dalla Bulgaria

DECLARATION

We, Bulgarian IT companies, declare:

In the near future, The European Parliament will
vote on a directive that will, in fact, legalize the patents in the software.

As citizens of a state that soon will be an EU
member, we are very embarrassed by this
development. It contradicts directly with the
interests of EU and the European IT business.
And, since these interests are ours, too, we are concerned.

Some say that this directive will protect the
small and middle business. The truth is the
directly opposite ? look at who supports, and who
opposes the directive. All supporters of the
software patents are multinational
megacorporations. All SMBs that have expressed an
opinion, are against the patents.

The SMBs provide more than 70% of the job
positions and 2/3 of the taxes collected in the
IT business. A crash of their business will
affect negatively not only the IT production of
the EU, but also the unemployment levels and the
income of the municipalities and the governments.
Also, the IT specialists have a big influence in
the society, and their dissatisfaction may get a broad support.

It is said that without patent protection, the
business will not dare to innovate, and the IT
development will suffer. This is not true. The
companies innovate to be more competitive, with
or without patents. An introducing of software
patents will obstruct the implementation of the
innovations; it is then when the IT development will suffer.


It is said that without patents the software
innovations cannot be defended. This is not true.
The innovations are very well defended by the
copyright laws, which are valid now, and are
created for this purpose. The patents only create
exclusive rights, and these are especially dangerous in the software field.


The standard expiration time of a patent ? 20
years ? is, in most industries, more than the
life of the innovation it covers. In the
software, this is not true ? a technology that is
20 years old is totally useless there. This makes
the software patents as good as if they were
eternal ? and this contradicts directly with the very idea of the patenting.


Every program that is practically usable includes
thousands of software technologies and ideas ?
that is, it potentially violates thousands of
patents. If even only a few of them are
controlled by opponents of this program, it may
not be created. And there is no programs that
don't have a competition, at least. Thus, the
software patents will severely limit the
abundance of software on the market, and the level of the competition.


Until 1980, when they instituted the software
patents, USA were practically the world software
monopoly. Since then, the tendency is reversed ?
their share both in the production of software
and in the creation of top software technologies
decreases. Since Japan instituted software
patents, despite its huge technological
potential, its promising software industry
practically disappeared. The position of EU in
the software industry is very similar to that of
Japan before the software patents ? there are no
reasons to believe that the things here will go otherwise.


On the other side, countries without IT patents
show a fast growth in their software production.
Some explain this with the low salaries in
countries like China and India, but the growth is
present also in EU, where salaries are much
higher. Recently India rejected categorically the
software patents, and China is not expected to
even consider them. If they are instituted in EU,
the IT investors will be even more tempted to
move their production outside EU. A new stimulus
will join the others ? the danger of litigation
with software patents. It is potentially even
larger than the difference in the salaries.


Often some European companies are mentioned as
main backers of the software patents, but the
situation is different. Most of the lobbying
behind the patents is provided by non-European
companies. This reflects the reality that we will
have if the patents are instituted. After the
synchronization of the European patents bank with
the world, over 90% of the European software
patents will be in the hands of non-European
companies. In long-term perspective, this puts
even the largest European companies in bad
position; for the SMBs, this is the immediate perspective.


Right now, EU has the opportunity to free itself
from the domination by non-European companies,
and to become a major IT player. An institution
of the software patents will destroy this
opportunity, and will put EU again in a
subordinate position, this time not only to USA,
but also to some ambitious countries that are
considered now to be Third World ones. Aside from
this, EU will be the most convenient territory
for wars between the USA patent holders and the
China and India software producers. For the
conflicting countries the result might be any,
but the territory is always devastated. Having in
mind the importance of the software in the modern
information technologies, and their importance
for the development, EU risks becoming a Third
World place, technologically dependent on China and India.


All this is a big concern for all of us. The
perspective of Bulgaria joining EU begins to look
like a joining an union that tries to destroy its
business in the areas of the most advanced
technologies. This way, such a membership turns
from a privilege into a danger, for all countries
? both these who want to join, and these who are already EU members.