2.9.08

Quotes about software patents:

Anwar Ummer Arackal, CEO of OpenFirms, a consulting company for some of
the leading health care organizations and companies in India, says
"Patents in the field of software hinders the accessibility to
technology of our government health care clients who depend mainly on
large scale deployment of embedded devices for functioning. This
situation would lead to monopoly and anti competitive strategies."

Stefane Fermigier, founder and chairman of Nuxeo SAS, says: "It is most
important for the future of our company and our ecosystem, and for
software innovation in general, that the tremendous legal uncertainties
introduced by software patents for true innovators are kept out of the
market."

Marco Schulze, manager of Nightlabs, a professional supplier of
ticketing solutions based in Freiburg, Germany, says: "Small Software
companies cannot afford to go to court or pay damages. Who is this
software patent system for?"

PatentFrei, a coalition of 1000 German software businesses united
against software patents, explains: "The copyright law, which should
guaranty the copyright holder the security of an appropriate
reimbursement, has become an empty shell. The creativity of software
developers has been replaced by the creativity of patent lawyers with
the writing of broad patent claims. Politicians are asked today more
than ever to bring back a patent system which has gone off course, and
to stop granting patents on software."

Jean-Paul Smets, founder of the Noepatents petition in 2000 and CEO of
Nexedi software publication, considers that "European Union is the world
most friendly region for software innovators. Unlike in the US, Software
Entrepreneurs can focus on R&D and do not need to worry about the risks
of costly patent litigations or absurd software patents trolls."

Eneko Astigarraga, CEO of CodeSyntax, a software company located in the
Basque Country, says: "It’s clear that software patents reduce
competition and innovation in the software industry, patents represent a
brake on innovation, especially on Internet."

Charles-H. Schulz, Partner at Ars Aperta: "Software patents exclude
competition, force companies out of business, drive up costs, impoverish
states and hinder their citizens to innovate and create revenues. We
chose to accept competition and foster innovation."

Pieter Hintjens, founder and CEO of iMatix Corporation, which provides
messaging solutions to the worlds financial markets, says "Patents are
for firms that can't compete without state intervention. We were free to
innovate in high-speed communications protocols because Europe was free
of software patents. We have always seen the US-style patenting of basic
ideas to be a curse on the fast-moving software business. Software
patents are protectionist voodoo."

Alberto Barrionuevo, President of Andalibre, the Association of open
source companies of Andalusia, says "Software patents, if legalized,
would destroy the most part of the IT business sector in the world.
AndaLibre is strongly against any software patent and will fight for the
freedom of creation in software."

Matthew Holloway, the author of Docvert, says "Software patents are
inherently broad and always result in government granted monopolies that
allow one company to outlaw their competitors. Because of this software
patents stifle innovation and economies. Allowing one company to own a
software idea is as foolish as allowing one company to own a food idea.
In my career I have never seen a software idea that was patent worthy."


Hartmut Pilch, board member and former President of the FFII e.V.,
explained in 2006 how the patent system can be saved: "My message to the
patent world is: Either get back to the doctrines of forces of nature or
face the elimination of your system."

John Ingleby, of Schoolforge UK, says "Software patents hamper
development of new software by increasing legal costs while at the same
time enabling concealment rather than publication of innovations."

Richard Stallman, Founder of GNU Project and Free Software Foundation,
says "Software patents are a threat to all software developers and all
software users. Just one patent can ruin years of work, and no software
project is safe: with each design decision, there is a chance you will
step on a patent that will explode and destroy your project. To make
software development safe for the developers and the users, we must
abolish software patents."

Bruce Perens, creator of the Open Source Definition, and advisor to
governments and industries, says "Software patents are a drag on
innovation in the countries that have implemented them, vastly
increasing the cost of producing real products in the proprietary
software world because they replace innovation with litigation. But
we're most concerned with them because they are entirely incompatible
with Open Source, which is the strongest driver of innovation in
software development today."

ANSOL, the Portuguese association for Free Software advocacy: "Asking
for software patents is nothing more than creating an arms race. And we
all know why arm dealers love those and the normal people who end up
paying hate them."