Demonstrations Against EU Software Patent Plans

Halo1 writes "On Wednesday August 27th, there will be a demonstration at the European Parliament in Brussels against the proposed directive on software patents, organised by the FFII. As an additional (or alternative) action, people are encouraged to participate in an online demonstration that day, replacing the main page of their website with a text explaining the dangers of introducing unlimited patentability in Europe. The proposed directive would make it impossible to refuse patents on algorithms and business methods such as a recently uncovered European patent from Amazon on ordering a gift for and automatically delivering it to a third party, which is even broader than its infamous 1-Click patent."

Re:Yay for software patents!!!

[ciaran_o_riordan]

That's not the way the patents problem works.

Interestingly, Microsoft has never taken anyone to court over patent infringement. It's not that they don't enforce them, they just do it by intimidating emails and threatening letters.

VirtualDub is a GPL'd media player. M$ told the author to remove the ability to play .asf movies because they are patented by M$.

Large corps can't possibly develop software without infringeing others patents so they crosslicense, thus forming patent sharing cartels that shield the Mega Corps from the problem and locking out any new competition.

The blinking cursor, and the nested menu structure are both patented. The owning companies only use the patents at strategic times. Is it possible to develop a competitive software package that doesn't have a nested menu structure?

A revolt is nearly impossible. Patents are state created private property. It's hard to regulate monopolies at the moment but it will be harder when their positions are held based on legitimate use of private property. If the EU adopts software patents, they will become a global "asset". That's when the real problem will begin.

Ciaran O'Riordan

You want example pages? Get them here!

[Cyclops]

Who's got the time to write this up and modify their web site? Better if somebody makes up a standard page we can all copy.

How about these example pages [ffii.org]?

/. management, please send this article into the main page...

Re:Snappy Campaign Logo - was Re:First Post

[Halo1]

This [ugent.be] is what I prepared for our own site (www.freepascal.org). It may still change somewhat, of course.