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Monday, October 11, 2004

Expert Opinion on Munich Linux Migration Published.

As reported e.g. by

ComputerWeekly.Com, Munich's city officials have decided to move ahead with their migration project from Microsoft Windows to open source Linux:

"Munich, Germany's third largest city, will proceed with its plan to equip all 14,000 computers in its public administration with Linux and other open source office applications, despite concerns of possible software patent infringements raised in the debate over new European Union (EU) patent legislation.

'We commissioned a group of legal experts to study the implications of using Linux ahead of proposed EU legislation, and they came to the conclusion that there is only a very small risk of software patent infringement,' said Stefan Hauf, a spokesman for the City of Munich. 'The experts told us that almost every user of software faces some risk.' [...]

Today, the expert opinion authored by Roman Sedlmaier and Jan Gigerich under the label of the Munich Law Firm

Frohwitter has been

published in PDF format [In German only, sorry].

The opinion makes clear that contrary to all false statement made by FFII e.V. the Draft Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions as politically agreed upon by the EU Council would not substantially change the legal landscape. Such patents have been granted by centuries, and no word of FFII e.V. is true that "software patents" would be "introduced". In accordance with all expectations, FFII e.V. in general and Mr. Pilch in particular are

not happy with that expert opinion.

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