EU Software Patent Directive Adopted 455
sebFlyte writes "FTA: "An EU Council spokeswoman said on Monday morning that the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive had been adopted." Apparently it's due to 'institutional reasons' that they're ignoring the outcry from developers and several nation states ..."
it's time to become (more)anonymous (Score:5, Interesting)
Time for a lobby (Score:5, Interesting)
ffii article (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:ffii article (Score:1, Interesting)
The other nations surely knew that it wasn't right, but they still didn't say a word.
Re:see you (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It still has to go for a 2nd reading... (Score:3, Interesting)
Implications for a European believer in democracy (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been fundamentally opposed to the EEC/EU for as long as I've been an adult voter. I first voted "No" to a proposal to expand EEC powers in 1986, and I've consistently followed this path, ever since.
In recent years, however, I had been considering a number of arguments in favour of the EU, and I was actually leaning towards voting in favour of the new constitutional treaty, at the upcoming referendum (in my native Denmark).
Not any longer.
If I had any doubts about voting "No" at the upcoming referendum, this situation has removed them. The process has revealed a complete disinterest in democracy at the highest levels of the EU - and a servility towards "business interests" (for which read: certain major corporations and their vested interests in maintaining their monopolistic powers) that borders on the shameful.
The autumn, I will go to the polls and vote "No". I urge any Europeans with similar concerns to adopt the same position.
Re:It still has to go for a 2nd reading... (Score:5, Interesting)
It all depends. On the surface, this is about patents, but (assuming we're not being misled) this is about democracy, and the EU Parliament being made irrelevent.
Re:The European Constitution (Score:1, Interesting)
How traditional... (Score:4, Interesting)
and if you get bored doing that demonstrate that you didn't give a damn anyway.
I don't fathom how I can possibly write any software that doesn't infringe "something", all the more amusing if I sat in a room for some time and worked out an "obvious" way to solve some problem.
I think it's fair to say that China is going to kick us all inside out with technological advancement now. Well, serves us right in some way I guess
What can be done? (Score:1, Interesting)
What do you consider to be the most effective course of action?
Re:no suprise there. (Score:5, Interesting)
So (nearly) did a blanket 100PS power limit on every motorcycle manufactured in or imported into the EC. This was former Commissioner Martin Bangemann's pet project, and it took intensive lobbying from among others, the Motorcycle Action Group [mag-uk.org] and Triumph Motorcycles [triumph.co.uk] to slow it down, but it only died when Bangemann himself ceased to be a Commissioner.
This was a virtally unresearched, transparently anti-competitive (Bangemann was trying to protect BMW [bmw.com], who, up until about five years ago, had a similar self-imposed limit) piece of legislation, supported by almost no-one else and more than once rejected by the European Parliament, yet it still took the downfall of its sponsor to kill it.
Moral?
EU Commissioners have far too much power, far too little responsibility, and are too difficult to get rid of.
Incidentally, I'm uncertain whether BMW themselves actually had anything to do with this mess, but shortly afterward, they lifted their self-imposed limit and now make some very nice [bmwmotorcycles.com] bikes.
Re: Do they realize... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Somethins is rotten (Score:5, Interesting)
If we assume that SW patents are to become reality (Score:2, Interesting)
If this is going to be forced upon us, can we do anything to take some of the bite out of it?
For example, we know that it is prohibitively expensive for the man in the street to register patents for the kind of trivia that Megacorp Inc. are inclined to do. So does anyone know if there is any kind of facility for proactively declaring prior art?
In other words, if I produce something and release it as GPL - is there somewhere where I could also declare that anything patentable within it should be considered to be in the public domain?
Re:Write to your member of the EU parliament now (Score:1, Interesting)
I would, but what's the point? Last time I tried that, his reply was basically "thank you for your concern, but I'm not going to succeed in my life goal of becoming a bigger arsehole than Mr Goatse unless I can get myself sodomised by every major US corporation at once."
Googlebomb: Banana Republic! (Score:2, Interesting)
Thanks.
Re:It still has to go for a 2nd reading... (Score:2, Interesting)
Which is why sw patents would be a very bad move for Europe -- businesses in the U.S. have been applying for sw patents for years. The land grab is over. EU lost.
Re:What can be done? (Score:1, Interesting)
Maybe the UKers can meet up and have a discussion about this, our future, and so on.
So they broke the procedure (Score:2, Interesting)
What if... (Score:1, Interesting)
What if no (or at least a majority) ignore the directive and do NOT pass a law to implement this directive? The parliamentary imperative being that the council are unelected where the parliament is and could well get voted out before any legislation gets passed, so why bother?
Re:it's time to become (more)anonymous (Score:3, Interesting)
Look to Africa and Asia to be the lead innovators as the EU and America descend into a new dark age.
Re:Knuts (Score:1, Interesting)
Why would they give a fuck about patent law?
Re:It still has to go for a 2nd reading... (Score:3, Interesting)
It also has the potential to severely damage the UK games industry - there are around 400+ game development teams. These would be seen as a cash cow for McKool Smith given their litigation with Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Activision, Atari, THQ, Vivendi Universal Games, Sega, Square Enix, Tecmo, LucasArts, and Namco Hometek [gamedaily.com]
GPL modification (Score:3, Interesting)
If you sue anyone for patent infringement, you lose your right to use patented techniques under the GPL. i.e. anyone else who wrote GPL software can then sue you.
This could be made to work, since when someone releases GPL software, they are essentially granting a free license to everyone to use any patented methods within the software. If that right were revoked for those starting lawsuits, it could be a useful start.
It could, in principle, fix the problem of large real companies (eg Microsoft) trying to crush smaller ones. What is left unresolved is how to deal with the really bad guys: "pure IP organisations" such as Eolas.
We've seen this before in the U.S. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not writing to gloat, merely to inform. From my standpoint, unelected legislators are never a good idea. If you must have two legislative houses in the EU, better to have an upper and a lower house where both are popularly elected. If I lived over there I would vote against any Constitution that featured an unelected body.
Re:It still has to go for a 2nd reading... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm afraid so. I don't know if it has changed (the current MEPs are relatively new) but there was a TV documentary about MEPs showing up, signing the presentation list for the (considerable) travel expenses and leaving immediately.
Re:What if... (Score:3, Interesting)
The EU is shit.
Where are all the proponents of Software Patents? (Score:2, Interesting)
1) No software patents
2) Allow software patents
3) Cowboy Neal
Re:What if... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What's the matter? If you don't agree you have. (Score:3, Interesting)
They are doing this by trying to apply patents and copyrights nearly universally (remember HP trying to apply the DMCA to printer cartridges?). Next thing you know, auto parts will have anti-circumvention devices and special lock codes so only a licensed auto-mechanic can repair them. Then you have DVD region codes (which HP seems to want to include now in printers too), which are nothing more than pure vendor lock-in so they can charge different prices at different places as they please giving no alternative.
This is Neo-Feudalism. Make no mistake about it. The barons are the corporate leaders (many of the Japanese corporate leaders used to come from Samurai families, so for them I suppose this is going back to the old times). Hopefully we can revert it by peaceful means before it sinks in.
Re:Hey, at least they're being honest... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Constitution gives more power to parliament? (Score:5, Interesting)
If you think Bendtsen is an idiot presently, try reading this: Minutes, meeting of the Folketing's EU Affairs Committee, June 23 2004 [www.ft.dk]. Bendtsen is just about the most arrogantly ignorant idiot you can imagine, and this really shows him off as what he is. Note his condescending tone...
In response to the several posters who have urged me to vote "Yes" because, in their estimation, a vote against the new treaty merely supports the undemocratic nature of the EU, I can only say that they obviously have not read the treaty text.
The "new EU" is by no means any more democratic than the present. In fact, it retains the current system whereby the unelected council dominates the political process. Since it also takes away veto rights of individual (democratically-elected) national parliaments, I consider it a step backwards for democracy in the EU. The present mess has only convinced me that it is a proud and noble thing to vote "No".
Re:It's Not Oer Yet... (Score:3, Interesting)
For absolute majority 367 votes of 732 is needed, this equates around 50.136612 %, not 70 as stated in the parent.
Four things can happen now:
1. The EP approves the Council's proposal. This ends the process and the proposal is made into law.
2. The EP approves the proposal but with amendments. The new proposal is then sent to the Council for a second reading. This requires absolute majority or 367 votes of 732. Before the Council's second reading the Commission is allowed to make a statement.
The Council's second reading can accept the EP's proposal with a qualified majority, or reject it. If it is rejected, the Council and EP must form a committee that consist of an equal number of representatives from the two bodies. If the committee agrees the proposal is sent to the EP and Commission for formal adoptation, if no agreement can be made the law is dead and can't be resurrected.
If the compromise goes to formal adoptation, the Council must approve the compromise with qualified majority, and the EP must approve it with a absolute majority. If either Council or EP fails to approve the compromise the law is dead. If both approves the compromise, it is made into law.
3. The EP rejects the proposal. This terminates all future attempts to pass this piece of legislation. This requires absolute majority or367 votes of 732.
4. The EP does not do anything within 3 months (+ 1 month possible as an extension). In this case, the Council's common position is treated as accepted and made law.
Re:What's the matter? If you don't agree you have. (Score:3, Interesting)
Karl Marx thought so, too. He identified the problem all right - read the parts of the Communist Manifesto that deal with how capitalist imperialism was set to evolve and tell me it hasn't happened. Globalisation, corporatism, empire by proxy, it's all there. Unfortunately, his proposed solution didn't work out.
Any better ideas? I thought European-style social democracy was working pretty well, but the EU seems intent on acting paradoxically against its own interests here...