
Software Patents > Journal > History 04/08/24 > News of 2004 > Tacke 04/08/25 > zdf0824
Tacke 04/08/25	zdf0824	Ireland 04/01/09	Council 04/01/29	CEC 04/02/02	FDP 04/05/27

German TV Examines FFII Complaint

The German State TV Channel ZDF.de is examining a complaint by FFII about news film of July 6th in which journalist Manfred Ahlers had reported about a "summit" of the german patent establishment with the Siemens boss H.v. Pierer and chancellor Schröder as keynote speakers. Ahlers wrongly reported that Schröder had called for software patentability and that "theft of ideas caused billions of euro of damage to the software industry every year", using a interview with a BSA official about the unrelated subject of copyright violations in order to confuse the issues and fabricate a consensus in favor of software patents, in the same way as the BSA-written "explanatory memorandum" of the European Commission's directive proposal attempted this in 2002. The Ahlers report falsely presents FFII as a lobby group of copyright violators campaigning for a right to "freely reuse programs written by others". The suggestive techniques and circumstances make it difficult to assume that this was done by mistake. FFII submitted a formal complaint to ZDF's multi-partisan supervisory body asking for compensatory measures. The director of the body, MP Rupert Polenz, has affirmed receipt of the complaint and forwarded it to the program director (Intendant). A further decision will be taken after receipt of the program director's opinion.