This has been given yesterday to the EU embassies
in Sofia. The initiative is of the
(Free Software Society)

The "Bulgarian Declaration" of IT

We, Bulgarian IT companies, declare:

In the near future, The European Parliament will vote on a
directive that will, in fact, legalize the patents in the
software.

As citizens of a state that soon will be an EU member, we are very embarrassed by this development. It contradicts directly with the interests of EU and the European IT business. And, since these interests are ours, too, we are concerned.Some say that this directive will protect the small and middle business. The truth is the directly opposite — look at who
supports, and who opposes the directive. All supporters of the
software patents are multinational megacorporations. All SMBs
that have expressed an opinion, are against the patents.

The SMBs provide more than 70% of the job positions and 2/3 of
the taxes collected in the IT business. A crash of their
business will affect negatively not only the IT production of
the EU, but also the unemployment levels and the income of the
municipalities and the governments. Also, the IT specialists
have a big influence in the society, and their dissatisfaction
may get a broad support.

It is said that without patent protection, the business will not
dare to innovate, and the IT development will suffer. This is
not true. The companies innovate to be more competitive, with
or without patents. An introducing of software patents will
obstruct the implementation of the innovations; it is then when
the IT development will suffer.

It is said that without patents the software innovations cannot
be defended. This is not true. The innovations are very well
defended by the copyright laws, which are valid now, and are
created for this purpose. The patents only create exclusive
rights, and these are especially dangerous in the software field.

The standard expiration time of a patent — 20 years — is, in
most industries, more than the life of the innovation it covers.
In the software, this is not true — a technology that is 20
years old is totally useless there. This makes the software
patents as good as if they were eternal — and this contradicts
directly with the very idea of the patenting.

Every program that is practically usable includes thousands of
software technologies and ideas — that is, it potentially
violates thousands of patents. If even only a few of them are controlled by opponents of this program, it may not be created.
And there is no programs that don't have a competition, at
least. Thus, the software patents will severely limit the
abundance of software on the market, and the level of the
competition.

Until 1980, when they instituted the software patents, USA were
practically the world software monopoly. Since then, the
tendency is reversed — their share both in the production of
software and in the creation of top software technologies
decreases. Since Japan instituted software patents, despite its
huge technological potential, its promising software industry
practically disappeared. The position of EU in the software
industry is very similar to that of Japan before the software
patents — there are no reasons to believe that the things here
will go otherwise.

On the other side, countries without IT patents show a fast
growth in their software production. Some explain this with the
low salaries in countries like China and India, but the growth
is present also in EU, where salaries are much higher. Recently
India rejected categorically the software patents, and China is
not expected to even consider them. If they are instituted in
EU, the IT investors will be even more tempted to move their
production outside EU. A new stimulus will join the others — the
danger of litigation with software patents. It is potentially
even larger than the difference in the salaries.

Often some European companies are mentioned as main backers of
the software patents, but the situation is different. Most of
the lobbying behind the patents is provided by non-European
companies. This reflects the reality that we will have if the
patents are instituted. After the synchronization of the
European patents bank with the world, over 90% of the European
software patents will be in the hands of non-European
companies. In long-term perspective, this puts even the largest
European companies in bad position; for the SMBs, this is the
immediate perspective.

Right now, EU has the opportunity to free itself from the
domination by non-European companies, and to become a major IT
player. An institution of the software patents will destroy
this opportunity, and will put EU again in a subordinate
position, this time not only to USA, but also to some ambitious
countries that are considered now to be Third World ones. Aside
from this, EU will be the most convenient territory for wars
between the USA patent holders and the China and India software
producers. For the conflicting countries the result might be
any, but the territory is always devastated. Having in mind the
importance of the software in the modern information
technologies, and their importance for the development, EU risks
becoming a Third World place, technologically dependent on China
and India.

All this is a big concern for all of us. The perspective of
Bulgaria joining EU begins to look like a joining an union that
tries to destroy its business in the areas of the most advanced
technologies. This way, such a membership turns from a privilege
into a danger, for all countries — both these who want to join,
and these who are already EU members.

With sincerest concern:

[signed by more than 20 IT-companies (list is being updated as we send it)]