-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hey guys,
Send the following e-mail to itech: Dear Sir/Madam, I read with total disgust the article "Patent Pending: Protecting Maltese computer-implemented inventions" published on Thursday, June 16, 2005 on page 3 in iTech. The article shows that the author has clearly ignored a very important aspect of patents and the article is in danger of leading the Maltese IT industry to support a directive which will work against it. Let me explain: The Computer Implemented Inventions Directive (CIID) is designed to allow the patentability of computer ideas. This means that very basic ideas like "gift wrapping a present when ordering items on-line" or "double-clicking a mouse" can be patented. The two examples mentioned have been granted, to Amazon and Microsoft respectively, in the USA. What does this mean? It means that if Amazon takes action, other on-line stores will now have to pay Amazon for gift-wrapping - never mind that it has been done in real life for thousands of years. I won't even mention what consequences the double-clicking patent would have.... The CIID will help companies, but certainly not Maltese companies. Large corporations will build huge patent portfolios not just by thinking up new ideas (which is not so bad) but more disturbingly by buying patents from smaller companies. This will result in an industry where the biggest players hold all ideas ransom, and small players with limited funds cannot even start-up a new company. This situation is already being seen in the USA. Now, as everyone knows, Maltese companies are very small (so small in fact, most companies are considered micro-businesses rather then SMEs). These companies will find it immensely hard to raise enough money to buy patents from big companies. Even if they do, making the patent profitable will be very difficult, especially in Malta's limited market. The CIID will also have a very negative effect on free and open-source software, where projects simply do not have the money to buy patents. The CIID has already been proposed to the EU parliament and rejected. Then proposed again, and rejected. Now the EU council is again proposing the CIID and the EU parliament will be voting around 5th July. This says a lot about the EU council, which is pushing the CIID even though the EU parliament has rejected it twice. Where is democracy? - -- As a balanced newspaper, I expect The Times to either publish this e-mail in iTech or to publish an article showing the real side of the story. More information can be found on the following website: http://swpat.ffii.org/ Yours Faithfully, Keith Vassallo Secretary, Malta Linux User Group -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFCuRpZym3HAdrlsyERAh1VAJ9xlKPNq9CQyvH/PBFTCz15blVzuQCcDzZ8 AFzt2ZDPbtcEBD1YYIj19og= =HBXn -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
