The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a

non-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

based in

Munich, Germany Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

, 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 (computing), libraries, user interface, or algorithm. Background A patent is a set of exclusionary rights granted by a State (polity), state to a patent h ...

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 Hartmut Pilch (born 7 July 1963 in Freiburg im Breisgau, West Germany) is a German software developer, translator, and digital rights activist who founded the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure or FFII. Since 2015 Pilch supported the ...

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 Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions (Commission proposal COM(2002) 92), procedure number 2002/0047 (COD) was a proposal for a European Union (EU) dir ...

. 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 conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development inv ...

s, tens of thousands of software users

system administrator A system administrator, or 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 servers. The system administrator seeks to en ...

s as well as a number of

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophica ...

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...

s and

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the 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 field there are ...

s for a total of 400,000 signatories. Online-protest

FFII organises conferences about the topic, usually in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, 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 German States of Germany, state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital o ...

, 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 SUSE ( , ) is a German-based multinational open-source software company that develops and sells Linux products to business customers. Founded in 1992, it was the first company to market Linux for enterprise. It is the developer of SUSE Linux En ...

and Infomatec. The

Open Society Institute Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a st ...

has contributed regularly, as have Red Hat, 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 Effi may refer to: * Efraim Effi Birnbaum (born 1954), Israeli basketball coach * Efraim Effi Eitam (born 1952), Israeli politician and retired brigadier-general * Efraim Effi Wizen (born 1956), Israeli computer animator and visual effects speci ...

, 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 def ...

enforcements, such as working to improve copyright regulation by providing technical analysis, amendments and voting recommendations that may influence the European Parliament.

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 (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...