In the next days, the European Parliament will consider the Mc Carty rapport imposing patents to Softwares, and the possible adoption of one new European directive on the matter

This rapport, according to few associations in defence of free software, such as Software libero, if approved, will rappresent the first step to the European patent to software.

The licence allows, for a period of 20 years, to texploit the patrimonial rights coming from that work and to protect the inventor from the use or the abuse done by others.

According to the association opposing the Mc Carthy rapport, this European directive could violate the Munich Convention of 1973 that unequivocally excludes software by the field of licences (art. 52), and avoids to put in relation with an invention that can have industrial application.

Moreover, a such initiative would contrast with the philosophy of the "open source "or the" free software" that consent to the customer, according to the definition of the FSF, the Free Software Foundation, to execute, to copy, to distribute, to study, to change and to improve the software.

The Mc Carthy proposal

Marco Cappato (Mep) and Giuseppe Gargani (President of the Justice Commission at the EP) during the Conference
"Software Patents. No licence to ideas."