#title: Business Software Alliance and Software Patents #descr: BSA is an organisation founded in the USA and currently without official status in most European countries, controlled by Microsoft and a few other large members. BSA is specialised on copyright enforcement and, until recently, was uninterest in patents. Representatives of BSA in Europe have even pronounced themselves skeptical or hostile to software patents in public. However, during a recent campaign for the introduction of software patents in Europe, BSA's new %(e:director of public policy), Francisco Mingorance, became a close friend of the European Commission's patent lobby and even had a privileged opportunity to participate in the drafting of the directive proposal. Moreover, under Mingorance's direction, BSA became a supporter of extreme pro-patent positions. This is apparently not because Mingorance or BSA want software patents, but because it is Mingorance's job to entertain good relations with the European Commission, which again married the European Patent Office as a part of a strategy to transfer power from Munich to Brussels. #Bat: Jamal Labed, president of BSA France, warns that software patents unfairly put small companies at a disadvantage. #ayc: an highly esteemed french organisation of computer security experts accuses BSA of irresponsible and illegal behavior in France, saying that the are conducting guerilla-warfare for copyright enforcement and violating other people's rights without being legally accountable, since they still are only an American organisation. Therefore also the name %(q:BSA France) is fraudulent, CLUSIF says. # Local Variables: ; # coding: utf-8 ; # srcfile: /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/phm/sys/mlht.el ; # mailto: mlhtimport@ffii.org ; # login: phm ; # passwd: YYYYY ; # feature: swpatdir ; # dok: swpatbsa ; # txtlang: en ; # multlin: t ; # End: ;