More on software patents
We've already covered the way in which software companies like Microsoft have changed to US law to give themselves a stranglehold on the software industry by locking up patents in an area where patents never existed before. They've done this by getting the courts to extend the kind of thing that has been traditionally covered by patents, a profoundly anti-competitive move. It's yet another example of how big companies put pressure on governments to change the rules and make life very difficult for small competitors.
In Europe, they've tried more direct assault, by having the EU extend patent rights to software by decree. The attempt to do this narrowly lost a vote in the European council of ministers. It turned out (hand on the pen!)that most of the text was written by the big developers lobbying group, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a fact that came to light though the discovery of an annotated Word file.
The software companies lined up many national votes in spit of legislative votes against the patent extension. And they played hardball (that is, if you can use a baseball term in relationship to European business.) According to an article by patent opponent Richard Stallman in the Guardian (8/2/2005).
Some governments ceded to threats from mega-corporations. Danish newspapers reported in 2004 that Microsoft had threatened to move a recently acquired company out of Denmark if the government did not put its hand up for patents. Earlier this year, after we had thanked the Polish government for rejecting patents, it bowed to four European mega-corps that threatened to move a laboratory out of the country where they spent perhaps $15m (£8.5m) a year.
The case is laid out in a IEEE Spectrum article ("Europe Struggles Over Software Patents"):
What's ultimately at stake in this debate is who will control the multibillion-euro software market in the EU. The antipatent contingent fears that opening the door for software patents would create a patent oligopoly dominated by the larger technology companies, throttling the freewheeling creativity that is the hallmark of the Internet and the open-source movement. The big tech companies, meanwhile, contend that a software patent regime would promote orderly innovation and more investment in virtually every field of business in which software plays an integral part.
The export of American-style business practices and repeated interference by EU politicians in favor of big businesses indicates that the power of multinational oligopolies is worldwide. And the European commission, it turns out, is very corruptible - a few years ago many of its members were forced to resign for taking money from business interests. The software companies may have lost, for now. But they have the money and the will to keep pushing, and they only need to persuade a few more politicians to get their will.
In fact, in the recently signed CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement), the non-US signees have been mandates that they allow for US-style patents of software. That follows a similar move from the earlier NAFTA agreement, and it will presumably be part of all future trade negotiations.
