Re: [Fsfe-uk] Draft PR on swpat directive

[Simon Waters]

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Bernhard Kaindl wrote:
>
> I think(and I think most politicians would agree with me) that free
> software still makes a relatively small part of the software economy
> when compared to the millions of SMEs in europe. And I might still
> need them to have a job tomorrow.

I think this is the wrong focus for free software discussion. The issue
is what part does free software have in the economy, not the software
economy.

Since it forms the mainstay of the Internet (most email, most websites,
most DNS, most IP stacks (even if some had licences that let them be
owned) etc), and the Internet is seen by many as a powerful factor
supporting economic growth, free software probably plays a much larger
part in the economy, than most people (including many here) realise.

Sure it's monetary part in the software economy is hard to assess, the
effect is obviously much larger than the monetary value, but that is to
be expected given the nature of the beast.

The analogy would be mathematics. Why do we teach mathematics to all
school children? Very few people become mathematicians, most of those
become mathematics teachers. So mathematics plays a very small part in
the economy and we clearly should do more to protect other subjects with
clearer economic gains like metal working, by allocating them the time
wasted on mathematics, right?

I think patents are bad for software SMEs as well as free software. And
I don't think specific exemptions for free software were workable.
Although I think this specific topic is dead for the moment by
procedural issues.

The general point remains that free software is good for business in
general, even if it's effects on the software business are harder to
assess. I suspect it is very good for the non-shrinkwrap market (the
majority) who get to enjoy free operating systems, free databases and
widgets, and not so good for the shrinkwrap software businesses (the
minority, who charge for operating systems, databases, and widgets).

Millions(?) of software SMEs in Europe, hmm, I think that might be
pushing it. I assume Europe has about 5 times as many companies as the
UK, of which a lot are one man businesses, so I'd assume Europe probably
has fewer than a million software companies, possibly far fewer. Anyone
know the true figure.

Thinking through those of my friends and family met through non-IT
related work, only 3 are fulltime in software, one embedded software for
consumer products (Japanese owned), one niche database market where
hardware integration is key (US owned), one financial products (US
owned). Even amongst people I know through IT work only a handful make
money primarily by writing shrinkwrap software.

Everyone seems to be becoming a programmer, but most are selling things
in which the software is but a part.
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