defensive measure: in the event software patents become enforceable in Europe and a competitor tries to use patents to prevent Nexedi from doing business or to prevent the ERP5 community from developping ERP5, Nexedi will give away its patents to whoever can attack this competitor.
fiscal optimisation: our competitors use software patents to increase their profitability. For example, Ireland is used as a hub by US software companies to evade corporate taxes through patent licenses. Some EU companies use software patents to reduce corporate taxes during acquisition / merger operations. Patents are considered as long term asset and benefit from special fiscal Laws. This creates a strong incentive to account software R&D through patents rather than through copyright. Until software R&D fiscal Law gets harmonized and until accountants get used to consider copyright as a valuable asset, Nexedi must follow the same practices as its competitors.
[^] # Re: tu as mal lu
Posté par gros_rouge . En réponse au journal ERP5, Nexedi et les brevets logiciels. Évalué à 2.
http://www.nexedi.org/sections/publication/nexedi_position_on_s/vie(...)
Reste à examiner cela un peu plus attentivement.
Fab.