Indian Software developers are opposing patents, saying the move would hit small and medium software enterprises in the country and promote the interests of multinational corporations, Indo-Asian News Service reported Sunday.

Participants at a gathering in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of Karala, to campaign for free software expressed happiness that their lobbying had put at bay attempts to allow software to be patented, at least for the time being.

But they warned that unless the country was careful, India could be stepping into a minefield that could affect software developers.

Last December, a presidential ordinance threatened to bring software under patents, causing much angst among software developers nationwide. After considerable lobbying, the software developers managed to avert the "threat".

"We've gone back to the status quo (pre-December 2004 situation) . We're glad that the immediate threat to allow software patents has gone. But there are still issues of concern that remain," Dr G. Nagarjuna, chairperson of the Mumbai-based Free Software Foundation (India) said.

Nagarjuna said some parliamentarians, social organizations and the pharmacy industry had helped to get the government to do a re- think about software patenting in India.

He brushed aside the official explanation that "software combined with hardware is patentable" as "illogical". Software never works by itself, but always in combination with hardware, he pointed out.

Anand Babu said: "Even in the US, patents didn't help the software industry. It's just the investors who get to own patents. Patenting software is a stupid idea because software is about thousands of ideas that go into even a simple program."

Babu is better known for building what once was the world's second-fastest computer, 'Thunder', in the Bay Area of Silicon Valley in the US.

Source: Xinhua