German parliament petition against software patents

The page documents a motion which the Bundestag (German parliament) has sent to the German government calling for the problem of software patents to be tackled.

Timeline

(newest first)

7 June 2013: The Bundestag approves a very strong joint motion calling on the government to tackle software patents.

19 April 2013: The Bundestag approved the sending of an anti-software-patents "petition" (draft motion) to three parliamentary committees. The three committees will debate this text and propose modifications before returning a final proposal which the parliament will vote on. The vote to send the text to the committees was approved by a large majority, including the governing parties. The "Rechtsausschuss (f)" is leading in coordination with:

• A. f. Wirtschaft und Technologie
• A. f. Bildung, Forschung und Technikfolgenabschätzung
• A. f. Kultur und Medien

What can we do?

• Ask Germans to contact members of those committees to support the proposed text?

Organisations supporting the petition

• Free Software Foundation Europe
• BIKT - IT trade organisation (Bundesverband Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie)

External links

• (in German) The petition text, as transferred to the committees
• German original: Parliamentary report, 19 April 2013 (English translations^[?]: Google, bing translator) - item "Tagesordnungspunkt 17" is the vote to send the petition to the three committees
• FSFE press release
  • LWN discussion
• German original: Software patents hearing in the Bundestag legal committee (English translations^[?]: Google, bing translator), 23 May 2013, FSFE
  • (in German) FSFE's written statement for the hearing
  • German original: FSFE's notes of their oral presentation (English translations^[?]: Google, bing translator)
• German original: German parliament against software patents (English translations^[?]: Google, bing translator)
• German original: BIKT calls to protect copyright from patents (English translations^[?]: Google, bing translator)

7 June 2013

• German original: Bundestag press release (English translations^[?]: Google, bing translator) (See the 7th resolution)
• (in German) Bundestag joint motion to German government
  • English translation by BIKT
  • German Parliament tells government to strictly limit patents on software, FSFE
• Slashdot story and comments