The Campaign for Ethical Patents is an initiative of the FFII.

The FFII is a non-profit organisation dedicated to establishing a free market in information technology, by the removal of barriers to competition. In 2005, CNET awarded the FFII the Outstanding contribution to Software Development award for this work.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the "ethical patents" campaign relate to "no software patents"?

Some people ask if demanding ethical patents is less strong than demanding no software patents. The answer is: it's a much stronger demand. Software patents are bad for many reasons. We have analysed these reasons, and found that the real problem is discrimination, of many kinds. Remove this discrimination, and you also remove all the problems of software patents. What is left may still be called a "software patent" but it becomes harmless, and maybe even useful. But ethical patents would work in all sectors, not just software. So fixing the system at the root, like this, makes life better across the board.

To put it another way, the problems with software patents are not just emotional and subjective. We programmers don't hate software patents because they look ugly. We hate them because they discriminate against the small software developers. This discrimination is the real problem: the system is unfair, and unfair systems don't work properly.

Software patents are not just the problem of the software industry.

Why Europe, not the World?

It's a start.

Why "Ethics"?

Ethics is our sense of justice, our sense of the balance in a relationship. When a law or system treats many people unfairly, it's unethical. People have abused the term, saying "business ethics", which is an oxymoron like "military intelligence" or "industrial action". Businesses do not have a sense of ethics unless they are very small, or run by very clever and dominant people who understand that balance and fairness can be good for profits.

Surely "ethics" is totally subjective?

We've defined ethics in terms of discrimination. If we argue against a system or law because we don't like it, we're being subjective. But if argue against it because it treats certain people unfairly, we're being objective. Ethics, when framed like this, is not philosophy, but a real yardstick that we can use to measure the balance, and overall value, of any social system, partnership, agreement, contract, etc.

What's the point?

To collect a lot of signatures, and to push for a new EU patent directive that fixes the mess created by the European Patent Office over the last years.

How can I help?

Send a poster to a friend and ask them to sign the petition. If you go to an event where you think people will care, print out some posters and hand them around.

Contributors

Concept and design by Pieter Hintjens. Contributors: Matthieu Pesesse, Benjamin Henrion, Alexandra Combes, Andre Rebentisch, Brian Kahin, Hartmut Pilch, Frans Hintjens, Jonas Maebe, Reinier Bakels, Johannes Sommer, and many others.

Partners

The Campaign for Ethical Patents was developed with help from Patentfrei, Greenpeace, and other organisations.