EU plan could put open sourcers in court

ZDNet (UK) ^ | August 2, 2005, 11:51 AM PT | Ingrid Marson

[Bush2000]

EU plan could put open sourcers in court
By Ingrid Marson, ZDNet (UK)
Published on ZDNet News: August 2, 2005, 11:51 AM PT

The European Commission has proposed a law that could allow criminal charges to be pressed against a business using software believed to infringe upon another company's intellectual property.

The proposed directive, which was adopted by the European Commission last month, would allow criminal sanctions against "all intentional infringements of an IP right on a commercial scale."

Richard Penfold, a partner at law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, said last week that the proposed directive could "quite possibly" allow the imprisonment of the boss of a company that is using infringing software, although it would depend on whether the defendant can argue that the infringement was unintentional.

It is unusual for companies to target the users of software, rather than its manufacturers, but there is one well-known example--the cases brought by the SCO Group against car maker DaimlerChrysler and auto-parts retailer AutoZone over their use of Linux. SCO claimed that AutoZone infringed on SCO's Unix copyrights through its use of Linux and that DaimlerChrysler had breached its contract with SCO.

Ross Anderson, the chair of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, said the proposed directive could help SCO or other companies in future intellectual property infringement cases against open-source software.

"In future somebody like SCO will have another course of action open to them--the threat of criminal charges. This threat would enable SCO to cast a larger legal cloud," said Anderson.

[Bush2000]

The free beer is going sour...

[Shazbot29]

I thought this was one of them wierd Religion things were the EU now allows druids Equal Rights -- open Sourcerers :

[D-fendr]

I don't consider myself a rabid open sourcer, but it seems the jist, particularly with the SCO example, is extortion by theat of lawsuit.

I'm just guessing you disagree though..

:)

[Bush2000]

FOSS advocates are simply going to have to start playing the IP game; that is, form a consortium to file patents when they innovate. Otherwise, they're going to get sued into oblivion.

[antiRepublicrat]

A lot of people are going nuts over the unintended (Or intended? We know the major corporations control the council) consequences of this proposed law.

[antiRepublicrat]

FOSS advocates are simply going to have to start playing the IP game; that is, form a consortium to file patents when they innovate. Otherwise, they're going to get sued into oblivion.

Or how about instead of just enriching the lawyers, we reform copyright and patent laws.

[Incorrigible]

Looks like n3wbi3, rdb3 and Nick will be "frog marched" out of the Brussels Court.

[softwarecreator]

Yeah, but seriously, it's Europe.  Who says this will spread to the US, Canada and other areas outside of the EU?

[for-q-clinton]

I do hate "lawsuit extortion"; however, I understand the need for it. If you invent a rock solid piece of code that costs millions of dollars/euros to create, you don't want one of your disgruntled employees dumping it in Open source/the borg and watch your investment go down the drain. Prosecuting the disgruntled employee will do nothing to recoup your losses.

The question is what's the best solution to the problem. Flooding them with lawyers is the tried and true tradition of govt's, so they stick with it.

[Bush2000]

Or how about instead of just enriching the lawyers, we reform copyright and patent laws.

LMFAO! Yeah, like that's gonna happen. Face it: You bring nothing to the table that interests the lawmakers that entertain new legislation. You aren't contributing any money, your work devalues software industry jobs and encourages outsourcing, and you're enriching our many foreign antagonists such as China. There's no upside.

[unixfox]

Well, since I'm working on a SCO problem as we speak (and drinking beer by the way) all I can say is...GOOD LUCK WITH ALL THAT.

[mikegi]

I *really* don't like the idea of criminal charges for IP infringement, especially when it comes to software.

[Bush2000]

How about some nice, golden handcuffs? ;-)

[Bush2000]

Did you pay for that beer?

[N3WBI3]

OSS PING

If you are interested in a new OSS ping list please mail me

[N3WBI3]

So I guess this claim that the EU socialist love Linux sooo much and pick on only poor littlemicrosoft is overblown right?

[N3WBI3]

Looks like n3wbi3, rdb3 and Nick will be "frog marched" out of the Brussels Court.

I guess if someday I either work for a company in the EU or sell software to the EU I might care..

[Bush2000]

So I guess this claim that the EU socialist love Linux sooo much and pick on only poor littlemicrosoft is overblown right?

It hasn't passed yet, has it? So I guess the answer is no.

[N3WBI3]

The question is what's the best solution to the problem.

Nail-Head Bang!..

The first thing that needs to be done is to redefine patents. Software patents in particular are too vague, and ls too long. I think having better defined patents with a reasonable life span that does not make that invention useless to the public by the time it expires..