HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a
non-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
based in
Munich, Germany Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
, dedicated to establishing a free market in information technology, by the removal of barriers to competition. The FFII played a key organisational role and was very active in the campaign which resulted in the rejection of the EU software patent directive in July 2005. CNET awarded the FFII the Outstanding contribution to software development award for this work, which was the result of years of research, policy, and action. After the July 2005 victory, FFII has continued to defend a free and competitive software market by working towards adequate patent systems and open standards. Currently the FFII fights against
software patent A software patent is a patent on a piece of software, such as a computer program, library, user interface, or algorithm. The validity of these patents can be difficult to evaluate, as software is often at once a product of engineering, something ...
s lobbies, not only in Europe but also in other parts of the world. It was founded as a German registered association under the name ''Förderverein für eine Freie Informationelle Infrastruktur (FFII) e.V.'' in 1999 by developer and far-right politics activist Hartmut Pilch.


Views

FFII's view is that software patents present a burden, not a benefit to society. It backs this position up citing extensive studies. FFII is a European NGO on this issue. Through its partnership with many other European organisations with the same goal, it has a reach across all nations of the EU. FFII has been active on this front since 2000 when, according to the FFII, an attempt to change the
European Patent Convention The European Patent Convention (EPC), also known as the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to w ...
to legitimise software patents failed. In 2003, it strongly but indirectly lobbied the European Parliament against the proposed Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. The EuroLinux anti-software-patent petition, supported and promoted by FFII, was signed by more than 1,500 SMEs, many thousand
software developer Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...
s, tens of thousands of software users
system administrator An IT administrator, system administrator, sysadmin, or admin is a person who is responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of computer systems, especially multi-user computers, such as Server (computing), servers. The ...
s as well as a number of
scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...
s,
academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
s and
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
s for a total of 400,000 signatories. FFII organises conferences about the topic, usually in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
, such as the conference which took place on April 14, 2004 together with a demonstration of more than 400 people against software patents the one on November 9–10, 2004. In
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
, FFII organised a demonstration of about 1,000 people against software patents. In 2005 FFII organised an ''online demo'' supported by 1,200 web sites.


Structure

The FFII was funded originally by donations from SuSE and Infomatec. The
Open Society Institute Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...
has contributed regularly, as have
Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. (formerly Red Hat Software, Inc.) is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises and is a subsidiary of IBM. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North ...
, and Stichting
NLnet The NLnet Foundation supports organizations and people that contribute to an open information society. It was influential in spreading the Internet throughout Europe in the 1980s. In 1997, the foundation sold off its commercial networking operat ...
. The historical list of donors from 1999 to 2005 can be found on the FFII web site. Partners in Europe include EFFI, EuroLinux, FSF Europe, and SKOSI. The FFII exists as a mother organisation with more or less formal chapters in many countries. The national FFII chapters (such as FFII France) handle national membership, media and lobbying, while the mother organisation operates at the EU level and in countries where there is no formal FFII organisation. As of 14 December 2013, the FFII board consists of Benjamin Henrion (President), Rene Mages (Vice president), Stephan Uhlmann (Treasurer), André Rebentisch (Secretary), Hartmut Pilch.


Campaigns

Besides software patents, FFII promotes various campaigns aimed at disencumbering computing and software development. These include supporting author's rights and
Interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader de ...
enforcements, such as working to improve copyright regulation by providing technical analysis, amendments and voting recommendations that may influence the European Parliament.


See also

*
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a plurilateral agreement, multilateral treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement that did not enter into force. The agreement ai ...
* EU Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions * European Information, Communications and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Associations (EICTA) *
Software patent A software patent is a patent on a piece of software, such as a computer program, library, user interface, or algorithm. The validity of these patents can be difficult to evaluate, as software is often at once a product of engineering, something ...
*
Software patent debate The software patent debate is the argument about the extent to which, as a matter of public policy, it should be possible to patent software and computer-implemented inventions. Policy debate on software patents has been active for years. The op ...


References


External links

*
FFII's example web shop with 20 examples of software patents
* FFII


National sections


FFII Belgium

FFII French Chapter

FFII Polish section

FFII Spain

FFII Swedish Chapter

FFII UK Chapter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foundation For A Free Information Infrastructure Foundations based in Germany Patent law organizations Intellectual property activism Non-profit technology Non-profit organisations based in Bavaria
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
Organizations established in 1999 1999 establishments in Germany