Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, also Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, short FFII is a Munich- registered non-profit and non-partisan organization that advocates for free software and standards.
Generally
The aim of the FFII is the creation and use of free implementable standards so that open source and free software small business can not be ruled out in the competition for the best software only due to their limited market power in the IT market.
FFII supports one hand, software users and system administrators in their efforts to free software and open content but also promoted by software developers and mid-sized software company. In this context, the FFII organized together with other European NGOs events and conferences in Brussels, Berlin, Munich, Strasbourg and other European cities.
The FFII has an open participation structure, the communication over open mailing lists and a supporter base of more than 50,000 people. He also works closely with organizations such as the Data Protection Working Group on Data Retention.
Founder of the German association is the sinologist and software developers Hartmut Pilch. There are sister organizations in other European countries.
Software Patents in the European Union
Amendment of the European Patent Convention in 2000
In order to ensure the protection of free software in Europe, the main activity of the FFII is focused on ensuring the programming freedom. According to the predominant view of the open content community, and many independent, free and medium-sized software producers that freedom was by a new EU directive on the patentability of software by 2005 at risk.
In 2000, the FFII has done together with other organizations for the protection of open- content software lobbied against an amendment to the European Patent Convention. The aim of the amendment to the European patent law was to allow software patents.
Renewed strength in 2002
After the change of the European Patent Convention failed to software patent friendly lobby groups have focused to enforce their interests by the EU Commission. As a result, in early 2002 was introduced by the European Commission under Frits Bolkestein a corresponding patent friendly EU directive in the legislative process. This policy also had the goal of any software to provide comprehensive patent protection.
This proposal by the EU directive on software patents was then rejected in the legislative process in the European Parliament ( by relative majority of deputies ).
Despite the vote by the European Parliament, the stakeholders of the now newly constituted European Commission will continue to try to enforce the concerns of lobbyists for the major software corporations. A consultation of the law in the EU Parliament has been denied by the EU Commission. Instead, a further EU Directive was introduced again by individual members of the EU Commission's instructions unconstitutional behaved and thus ignored the will of the parliamentary European People's Assembly.
Now to reject this second EU Directive by the European Parliament it required an even greater majority of the people's representatives ( absolute majority of all MPs ).
The mitgestartete of FFII Petition for a Software Patent Free European Union has gained over 310,000 signatures in March 2005.