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Europeans Still Battling Software Patents 142

Posted by michael from the long-haul dept.
rimberg writes "The FFII in the UK is issuing an alert for all supporters to write to their MPs -- this weekend . In September the European Parliament voted for strong restrictions on software patents. But these could be set aside at a meeting of the EU's Competitiveness Council of Ministers on 10 November. The ministers' meeting is to be "prepared" at a meeting of senior patent officials from across Europe even sooner: this Thursday 23 October. Unless they can be convinced otherwise before 10 November, it is believed that UK ministers will push for the Council to adopt a November 2002 draft text, which is even worse than the infamous McCarthy report. The European Parliament's rules for second reading make it very difficult for MEPs to fix a bad text from the Council. The FFII says it desperately need a lot of letters to go out to MPs this weekend to tell the Government how bad the November 2002 draft is. More information at FFII-UK."
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Europeans Still Battling Software Patents More

Europeans Still Battling Software Patents

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  • IR35 and now patents (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gilesjuk ( 604902 ) <giles.jones@nospaM.zen.co.uk> on Saturday October 18, 2003 @03:41PM (#7249927)
    Are they trying to kill IT in the UK or what?

    The smaller companies will suffer when patents are phased in and it is these smaller companies that employ workers in the UK. The larger organisations are on the whole moving many jobs to countries such as India.
    • IT in the US seems to have survived... mind you I wouldn't want to live there... couldn't afford to pay a patent lawyer every time I wanted to write anything.

      Certainly I can see a lot of the smaller companies going bust when (not if... since when have politicians made sane decisions?) this becomes law - you'll get the pacman-like behaviour that seems to be common in the US where one company comes out of nowhere, patents something bleeding obvious then goes around closing down small companies and gettng la
      • But we have IR35 contend with, many contractors have said that the money they accumulated through contracting allowed them to start their own business.

        Sure IT in the US has survived, but they have Oracle, Dell, Microsoft, Sun, IBM etc.. who do we have in the UK? erm....Arm, Symbian....ICL? hardly thriving is it.
    • The larger, multinational corporations are trying to kill all their competition. This is one way to accomplish that. They are, after all, the wealthiest corporations in both cash and patents, so they stand to gain the most from it and are pushing the process.

      It doesn't help, of course, that the UK is the U.S.'s bitch, as proved by Gulf War II. But it wouldn't really matter even if that weren't the case, because all of these governments listen to large multinational corporations first and foremost. W

    • The problem with all business legislation is that it hits small businesses who can't absorb it like big ones can. It makes entering the market harder and protects the big boys.

      The way software is going, I think I may retrain as a plumber or a lawyer.

  • Example (Score:4, Informative)

    by Ed Avis ( 5917 ) <ed@membled.com> on Saturday October 18, 2003 @03:42PM (#7249929) Homepage
    Copying form letters is very bad - they don't get read. But if you're wondering about how to use LaTeX you might want to look at some stuff wot I wrote [membled.com] earlier today. (mp_letter.tex in that directory; the other .tex files are earlier stuff.) I don't want to hold it up as a great exemplar though... write your own words and opinions. (But follow the FFII guidelines [ffii.org.uk]!)
  • If software patents were kept in place Linux developement taking place in Europe would basically stop. Are they trying to kill open source or something? I thought some countires in the EU were trying to adopt Linux and open source software not kill it.

    • Re:Patents and Linux (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Tony Hoyle ( 11698 ) <tmh@nodomain.org> on Saturday October 18, 2003 @03:52PM (#7249962) Homepage
      Microsoft, Sun, etc. have a lot of money to spend on lobbyists.

      We basically have Alan Cox..

      Not surprising the laws are a bit biased :)
      • ... and Tony Hoyle if he's smart enough to start writing now.

        I wrote my representatives, you should do so too, instead of hoping Alan gets the message across.

        You _can_ make a difference.
        • Yeah that'll make a difference. I'll fly to brussels now.. I'm sure they'll ignore the massed ranks of MS lawyers for a geek from Manchester.

          It's a done deal... politicians do what they want - they days that they actually listened to the people are long gone (and they wonder why voting turnout was 20%* in some constituencies.. sigh...).

          (* 20% of *registered* voters. Never met anyone who's actually registered yet...)
          • Hi,
            I know the situation is quite bad when it comes to people - it seems many people have become quite apolitical, they only seems to care about what they do tomorrow but simply don't care on what and who is ruling them. It' catastrophic!

            Now for politicians: Of course they accept the message which the big origanisations and the patent offices and the patent lawers are telling them - if nobody is really competing with them at the same argumentative level.

            That's of course a challenge to take, it's defini
          • e-mail your MP. Their details are here [parliament.uk]. Tell them that you are opposed to software patents and ask them to forward your concerns to the appropriate minister before the forthcoming meeting of the Council of Ministers. It's not hard, it won't take any longer than your post to /. and if enough of us do it, it will make a difference. We've already won the first round in the European Parliament. Now we just need to see this through.
          • They didn't ignore our massed ranks at September 24.

            Make sure you're the last drop that makes the cup run over.
            • Good point. I nearly didn't write because I'd written to my MP at the start of the week about open source.

              But I figured - what if my letter is the one.

              Way I see it, you might make a difference if you write. You won't make any if you don't. Even if you don't want to vote, write "you are all bastards" and spoil the paper. At least someone from each party will read it.

    • Well... a lot of Linux development is taking place in the US, and the US is already allowing any kind of patent as long it's not all too obviously not new. So whatever happens, it won't be the end of linux or open source...
      • I think it depends how far this whole story goes.

        For example in the DMCA arena, now a second EU directive is coming which criminalizes the break of copy protection(this is called the "second basket") and if we don't stop them, they'll do a third basket on DRM: DRM a must for every computer - so what is free software then?

        It could be made illegal to run something which you control in the end. Full control to the Matrix.

        For software, the proposal for the directive already tries to get further. For examp

    • But I really think this needs to be up top of the thread. The instructions on the linked pages assume you're a UK citizen. Many of us are in other european countries, and even if we aren't citizens we know and have influence with those who are. Time is short. Any help with what a Swede, a German, a French, an Italian, etc. should be doing today?

      • > Any help with what a Swede, a German, a French, an Italian, > etc. should be doing today?

        Your governments will be represented at the November 10th meeting and at the preparation meeting in 4 days time. Make sure they know what you want them to do.

        You should probably join the relevant mailing lists for country-specific information. They're listed here [ffii.org] along with a long list of other stuff to do.

  • Looks to me (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Ironic, but in a few years looks like the centers for IT innovation will be China and Russia, mostly China, where respect for patent system and intellectual property in general is quite low.
    • What would make you think that Russia, which can barely pay its cops much less IT people, and China, which is too shortsighted to properly manage a health crisis, will be centers of IT innovation? In fact, the country with the strictest IP and patent laws (USA) has been the center for IT innovation for the past two decades. So I really dont buy the whole "strict IP laws will kill innovation" argument, empirical evidence shows that the opposite is true.
      • I don't say that strict IP laws will kill innovation.

        I believe too broad IP laws stifle innovation in software because it limits competiton and in a market where there are no competitors, there no more incentivie to innovate.

        Too broad IP laws cause too many patents, cause low patent standards, can be summarized as patent inflation. And this is a danger to SMEs because they can't afford the patent litigation lawsuits, so they have to pay or just get bought for a cheap price.

        About your argument:

        The I

        • Your argument is that innovation in an environment with little respect for a patent system, and IP rights will be greater than in an environment with more respect for patent and IP rights. China and Russia were your examples of countries with low regards for patent and IP rights.

          I argue that the US has, in the past 10 to 20 years, had one of the strictest, and broadest IP rights system in the world, yet it continues to lead the world in innovation and R&D. Linux aside, and whatever your political persu
          • The argument with environments with little respect for a patent system was not transported by me, this was somebody else's, and I don't endorse it for the US or the EU.

            I also don't question that the US may have the largest amount of public and private R&D investment, but I don't think this was very different 10 years ago when(I assume) there was not this much difference in the interpretation of patent laws.

            Some years ago, Europe was also still a big step behind the US, when thinking of the common cu

            • i agree with you. patents can harm incremental innovation a lot. I also agree that 20 years is a lot, especially in the software/computer arena, where, arguably, innovation occurs at an extremely rapid pace.

              many people on slashdot only look at one side of the situation, however, that patents are bad, and ignore any benefits patents might provide.
              • yes of course, patents are a neccesity in some fields where enormuos investements are neccesary before a new product(e.g. in the pharmaceutical sector) can be sold.

                Without patents in such fields, companies would have problems to justify high research and development investments if there is no confidence that they will get the invested money back because anybody would be allowed to copy the research and finally destroy the income needed to pay the research.

                i agree with you. patents can harm incremental

  • Ok, I give up... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 3seas ( 184403 ) on Saturday October 18, 2003 @03:51PM (#7249958) Homepage Journal
    Why does it never seem to stop, this desire to place constraints on consumer choice?

    People get tired of the constraints being placed on them so they create their own, only to then have a persistant effort to take their choice away from them.

    With technology making it easier and easier to create, you'd think the exclusive rights would get shorter and shorter, so as to re-emburse for R&D.

  • I tried visiting
    http://www.knoppix.org [knoppix.org] for the first time about 2 weeks ago and was greeted by bad news about European law in the works.

    • Closed because of "Software-Patents"

       In the next few days, the European Parliament will decide about the legalisation and adoption of so-called "software patents" in Europe, which are already
      used by large companies in other countries to put competitors out of business. This can lead to the termination of many software projects such as
      KNOPPIX, at least within Europe, because the holders of the over 30,000 already granted "software patents" (currently without a legal foundation) can
      claim e
    • Hmm. This message on the home page had been suggested by FFII to put on as many websites as possible to spread the word. If you look a bit further, there is a link to the old index page inside the message. Nothing has been closed down for real.
  • I'm sure we have all grown tired of hearing snobby UKians touting their political stablitiy with phrases like, "Geez, I'm glad I don't live in the US." Well, I'm glad I can finally say that I'm glad I don't live in the UK.
  • Do we have anything going on in Congress to limit the scope and term of software patents, and/or increase the effectiveness of the USPTO, or are we still just venting about it?
    • Do we have anything going on in Congress to limit the scope and term of software patents..

      Unlike the effort in Europe to actually change the law, software patents in the US are a result of the US Supreme Court's interpretations of existing law.

      The US Congress played no "direct" role in the creation of software patents in the US, rather it was a series of US Supreme Court decisions (Gottschalk vs. Benson - 1972), (Parker vs. Flook - 1978), Diamond vs. Chakrabarty - 1980), and (Diamond vs. Diher - 1981) w

      • Hopefully, the European Parliament will be able to see through the dis-information spread by the FFII, the Eurolinux something or other, and pass meaningful legislation this time.

        I think the main problem of pro-swpat lobby in Europe is that the politicians of the European institutions who are pro-software patents, keep on repeating that they are actually against software patents, but pro patents on computer-implemented inventions [ffii.org].

        This forces those people to talk only about generalities and how much t

      • "Hopefully, the European Parliament will be able to see through the dis-information spread by the FFII..."

        What disinformation? The FFII is an organisation devoted to the clarification of the issues surrounding software patentability and to the refutation of the lies and fallacies used by parties with vested interests in promoting such patents in their most extreme form. It is unlikely most MEPs had ever heard of the free software movement or knew anything whatsoever about software development and patentab

  • I would love to, hell I want to, all I need is a stamp envelope paper, time to sort out and get my printer working, probably only 15 minutes all in all, so why do I always wuss out.

    Pleeese pleese pleese don't be a looser and a dork like me and send a bloody letter to your MEP.
  • In this day and age, writing to your MP or Senator just has no effect. Instead you should send cash or blackmail threats. However, many people simply dont have enough money to initiate a bribe, but dont worry! thanks to capitalism, you'll soon be able to bribe someone even on a low budget! Bribe Agencies will allow many people to concentrate their money into one bribe which can be sent to any participating politician (i.e all of them). I for one cannot wait for this, it will open up bribery to even the poor

    • [...] dont worry! thanks to capitalism, you'll soon be able to bribe someone even on a low budget! Bribe Agencies will allow many people to concentrate their money into one bribe which can be sent to any participating politician (i.e all of them).

      Mmm... Maybe you should try to get a patent on that idea. Actually, something like a method of helping politicians make decisions, using a computer network in order to let a variable amount of money be transferred from an user account to the politician's one. No

    • If that were true, how can you explain that we got such good amendments voted in the European Parliament?
      • Well firstly the freedom of speech/human rights crap was a switch and bait - you simply cant get the publics attention these days without something jucy. The rest is directly proportional to their progress in the Orwellian model (See "Animal Farm") Theres a gap between a political system becoming fully corrupt, and we call this the "buffer zone". To maintain a healthy government its important to stop them before they pass a given threshold of corruption. Let me give you an example:

        You buy some milk and you
  • Considering that mechanical realisations of software can be constructed, I see little point in "battling" them, as they're fully tangible, patentable ideas.

    • Considering that mechanical realisations of software can be constructed, I see little point in "battling" them, as they're fully tangible, patentable ideas.

      What you say is simply incorrect, since, in Europe, software patents are not allowed according to the European Patent Convention EPC. Article 52 of the EPC [ffii.org] quite explicitly states that computer programs are not patentable, since they are not inventions [ffii.org] in the sense that the word is used in the field of patent law.

      The problem is that the European Pa

  • As opposed to the US?

    That's the real issue.
    • There have been about 30,000 software patents granted until now. 75% of which are owned by US and Japanese companies, fwiw. I don't know how many software patents there are in the US.
  • I'd suggest you contact them in the UK, France, Germany and Italy (and in their respective languages) as these countries hold the most MEPs in the EU Parliament, and therefore the most power and votes to pass this.

  • Europe will be crushed. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by zulux ( 112259 ) on Saturday October 18, 2003 @04:30PM (#7250116) Homepage Journal

    The poor europeans will be crushed by the suddenly vaild American software-patentes we have been creating over the last 10 years. EU firms have had no need to create patent portfolios - and will be defenselss to American lawsuits when the EU allows software patents. There will be no 'cross licensing' because EU companyines have no patents to cross license with.

    Software patents are horribly evil, and if the EU is stupid enough to follow the us Americans, they will be *very* *very* sorry.

    All your EU companies are now belong to IBM, MOT, and MSFT.

    • US patents won't ever be valid in Europe simply because they're US patents and not European or national patents. And it's too late to file any patent that was already published in the US.
    • You really only have to look at the development of the aeroplane. The wright brothers may have been the first to build a powered heavier than air flyer, however, the y then spent most of the rest of their lives and careers in court's fight patent suites, and so effectivly stifled development of the aircraft in the US that all of the important innovations in powered flight (IE, aircraft that could stay aloft for more than 12 seconds, manouver, take off and land under a variety of conditions and be navigated
    • Software patents are horribly evil, and if the EU is stupid enough to follow the us Americans, they will be *very* *very* sorry.

      I started programming in 1980 or 81, and I've lived in America all my life. And I don't like what I see happening with software patents. People have filed suits saying they own hotlinks, any kind of menu driven website, cookies, handshakes (in spam they call them "Challenge/Response" systems) etc. The vast majority (in fact, almost every example I've seen) should be available

  • Those crazy Europeans, always trying to copy the latest American fad.

    When ever will they learn?

    -Adam
  • Before being ensnared by AI, I got me a degree in economics and studied patent theory relatively deeply, its origins, it supposed motivations to protect innovation, etc, etc. At its roots the ethics behind patents are honorable, but in the modern world of software development seem far more to protect the big guns from competition, as opposed to encouraging independent innovation. 5 YEARS ON I'm now developing on a bleeding edge software project, utterly original, which has by necessity at its centre a pate
    • .... They *can* be good imho. (remember even linux had some basis for its design already researched and developed in the shape of unix api) Patents should exist to allow us R&D and time to setup, hopefully for the good of everyone...but not to monopolise and stunt creativity for decades, and thats the point. Balance and Tao.

      OK, so then what do you do when Microsoft starts hitting you with legal action for infringing various of their patents? Even if they don't have a clear-cut case for infringement,
    • Seems to me your project wants to have it's cake and eat it. You call it open source but you don't want commercial organizations copying it. Why not? Is it because you intend to make a commercial product out of it yourselves in the end? If so then it looks like you're relying on the free labour of the open source community to help develop a product to make money for you. If you're not actually using such free resources like this, why can't you develop it without making it open source in the first place - us
    • I too think that occasionally algorithms are invented that are novel enough to deserve intellectual property protection.

      The problem is, we don't seem to have that choice. The only way I can see to stop the patent offices from granting patents for every trivial thing they feel like is to be very firm that no software may be patented at all.

      The patent lawyers are constantly trying to extend their remit. Already, the European Patent Office has granted [ffii.org] about 30,000 software patents - against the sp

    • How long does your company need? 20 years? Thats a lot by any scale in the high tech world. Factor into the current situation the litany of trivial patents entering into the system and we're running head-on into a situation where products and services that might of been viable become unfeasible due to licensing costs owed to companies that have never manufactured a thing in their existence.

      The problem is that the USPTO, for all intensive purposes, has abdicated its responsibilities and is now just rubber s

  • To all non-Europeans (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 4D.uk ( 246488 ) on Saturday October 18, 2003 @05:27PM (#7250346)
    To all non-Europeans

    This may be the best opportunity left for you to prevent software patents in your own country

    The United States Patent Office and the Japanese Patent Office have already achieved their goal of software patents in their own countries. The European Patent Office (supported by all the European national patent offices) is the third partner in the Trilateral Commission [ffii.org], and if it is able to legalize software patents in Europe, each partner will have a very strong position of apparent international legitimacy from which to fight any backlash in their own regions.

    And then, rest of the World, watch out.

    Between them, these 3 regions have a massive amount of economic power, and they will push the rest of the World to follow their lead on the software patent issue. This will be done through the world trade and intellectual property organizations (WTO and WIPO), where the countries on the receiving end of this pressure will probably concede the issue, given that they have more important issues to fight about (such as farming subsidies [bbc.co.uk]). Not that they'd necessarily want to fight it, since most governments' advisers on the subject (patent lawyers) are generally strongly in favour of extensions to patentability anyway.

    So, the best remaining opportunity for you to remove or prevent software patenting in your own country may be to help fight it in Europe. If you are not European, you obviously don't have any direct say in our democratic processes, but you could still give secondary support. I guess the best way would be donating your time and money to the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure. Here are the links:

    • Donate time to the FFII [ffii.org] (long list of things to be done; translations, technical work, mirroring, adopting patents. Or just sign up to the mailing lists and offer general help)
    • Donate money to the FFII [ffii.org] (Click on the Pay Pal link)

    But if you don't think it's right for outsiders to interfere in other countries' political processes, tell that to the BSA (which drafted the original directive proposal [slashdot.org]), and the US Government (which didn't like the proposed amendments [ffii.org]). And when they ignore you, come on and help the good guys.

    P.S. I don't speak for the FFII, I just don't want to see software patents (generally unfair restrictions on people's right to write and distribute their own software) seriously harm computing all around the World.

    P.P.S If you are an EU citizen, make sure your government knows what you want it to do at that November 10th meeting.

  • The email/fax that I sent (Score:3, Informative)

    by Morosoph ( 693565 ) on Saturday October 18, 2003 @05:41PM (#7250402) Homepage Journal
    Please no-one use this "as is", especially if they live in Cambridge; I only want to encourage others to craft a decent letter.

    Dear Anne Campbell,

    A few weeks ago, I emailed you concerning software patents, with patent laws being passed in the European Parliament, and soon to be put through to UK law.

    Last month, the European Parliament voted for strong restrictions upon software patents, but it is my understanding that UK ministers at the Competitiveness Council of Ministers are likely to push for the Parliament amendments to be overturned. This would be a disaster for software development within Britain.

    The UK Patent Office have been lobbying for unlimited patentability, and whilst their consultation found a lot of support from patent professionals were in favour, the views of programmers were extremely hostile. Strong patent laws are not good for the industry, although they might be good for big companies: in the USA, large companies build portfolios of software patents, which creates a minefield for programmers, as every program contains steps which could be considered innovative, meaning that before long, it becomes impossible to write programs of any complexity without stepping upon some of these patents. Although these patents ultimately might not stand up in court, the fear of law and the resources of large companies means that the interests of smaller outfits and individuals are overwhelmed. This is not an efficiency, for the cost is not the natural cost of doing business, but an artificial one of compliance with the regulation.

    I should add that in the USA, cross-licensing of patent portfolios is commonplace, creating government-enforced cartels, as those working for such companies don't need to worry about compliance. This is actually proof that patent laws are inefficient, since firms would rather absolve one another of their patent obligations than enforce them. An excellent case against software patents is put forward by Laura Creighton, a software venture capitalist, to be found at http://www.vrijschrift.org/swpat/030508_1/ [vrijschrift.org].

    I am faxing, as well as emailing this letter because of the urgency of the issue: there is to be a series of meeting of patent officials throughout Europe on Thursday 23 October ahead of the meeting of the Competitiveness Council of Ministers.

    This is a serious worry for me, and not a theoretical idealisation. Everyone that I know in the industry has told be how worried they are about what future laws we are likely to end up with. I hope that you can put the case to Stephen Timms MP, the minister for e-commerce at the DTI, and cast your vote at a future date against an excessive patent regime.

    Yours sincerely,

    Tim Wesson.

    • Everyone that I know in the industry has told be how worried they are

      I hope I've caught you before you sent it.

      • Thanks, but too late :-(

        A quick Google, and I find this old chestnut. Original author lost in the mists of time...

        SPEL CHEQUER

        Eye halve a speling chequer.
        It came with my pea sea
        It plainly marques four my revue
        Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

        Eye strike a key and type a werd
        And weight four it two say
        Weather eye am wrong oar write
        It shows me strait a weigh.

        As soon as a mist ache is maid
        It nose bee fore two long
        And eye can put the error rite
        Its rare lea ever wrong.

        Eye have run this pome threw it
        I am shore y

  • Fax your MP - I did. (Score:3, Informative)

    by jregel ( 39009 ) on Saturday October 18, 2003 @06:39PM (#7250617) Homepage
    Please do NOT copy this word for word. Personal faxes are better. Here's an edited version of my fax:

    Dear Mr David Drew,

    I am writing to you to make you aware of a very real problem that will affect the computer industry in the UK. I am a technical consultant for a software division of the ********* - one of the largest IT services companies in this country. I care passionately about this industry and want to see it succeed. Unfortunately the British Government is being encouraged to promote a draft resolution concerning software patents ("Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions") that will cause great harm to many companies in the UK.

    As I am sure you are aware, the idea of patents is to foster innovation by encouraging individuals and companies to make public their work in exchange for certain rights (e.g., royalties obtained through licensing). While this concept works in many situations, the use of patents in computer software is damaging the IT industry by doing the exact opposite that was intended. This is the situation the United States finds itself in where software patents have been granted for several years.

    The main problem with software patents is that it is extremely difficult for non-technical individuals to determine whether a patent is actually valid or whether it is either obvious or subject to prior art without a significant investment of time and resources. As you can imagine, this places a great burden on the organisation responsible for granting the patent. The US Patent Office has typically dealt with software patents by granting them and allowing any dispute to be argued in the courts. This has resulted in a climate where patent portfolios are used as negotiation tools when dealing with other companies - you can safely infringe on other companies' patents if they infringe on yours, creating a patent "stalemate". This is leading to a stiffling of innovation, especially with smaller companies without a portfolio.

    On the 24th September, the European Parliament voted on a directive that included an ammendment that would prevent "a drift toward US-style patentability of pure software and business methods". Unfortunately, the European Commission are hostile to the aforementioned ammendment and are threatening to remove it. The British Government is being encouraged by the UK Patent Office to push a November 2002 draft that removes the ammendment in favour of a patent "free for all". The European Parliament's rules for second reading make it very difficult for MEPs to fix a bad text from the Council. Therefore is is imperative that the best possible text is promoted by the British Government.

    If the November 2002 draft is accepted, it will have a negative impact on the IT industry in the UK. The only people to benefit from such a law would be the US IT industry that already has a huge patent portfolio and patent lawyers. Everyone else will lose.

    A petition of over 288,000 names has been signed by people who work in IT in Europe and recognise the impact that software patents will have on both the industry and the economy. For more information on how widespread the concern for this issue is, please consult http://patents.eurolinux.org and http://swpat.ffii.org/

    I appreciate that the issue of software patents is dry and not particularly interesting, but in the interests of the software industry in this country, I would ask for your help. Please could you bring this issue to the attention of Mr Stephen Timms, the Minister for E-Commerce at the DTI, forwarding my concerns.

    Thanking you in anticipation.

    Regards

  • D of I [emory.edu] .... when was teh last time you really read it?
  • I'm starting to think that perhaps the European politicians in question simply didn't realize how controversial the issue of software patents really is. And maybe that's why they keep leaving unfinished business on the table -- it provides the big, deep-pocketed corporate players in the game with opportunities to give the politicians even bigger bribes in order to get their way.

    (For those of you in the United States who do not understand this strange word "bribe", it simply refers to the illegal exchange
  • Personally, I own the C++ loop code.

    for ([number type] [variable] = [starting number]; [variable] [operator] [ending condition value]; [variable][shorthand operator])
    {
    // Code goes here
    };

    PAY UP, CHUMPS!
    • No, apparen't SCO does. Well, according to Blake Stowell, Communications Manager:

      "C++ is one of the properties that SCO owns today and we frequently are approached by customers who wish to license C++ from us and we do charge for that." March 4 2003
      • I don't wish to defend SCO here, but if you are referring to this [mozillaquest.com] article, the context is important.

        Q:

        At this time most Linux and/or GNU/Linux distributions include C++ compilers and editors. Is this something for which SCO currently charges? If so, just what are the current arrangements? If not, will C++ licensing and enforcement be added to SCO's licensing and enforcement program?

        It looks like Blake Stowell was talking about the compiler, not the language. The compiler is called C++.

  • I think everything from one click shopping to the XOR cursor should be covered by patent and the originators of these marvelous inventions should jealously guard their efforts by every legal means. This would be a great start ... at stopping the motor of the world.

    Anyone who truly believes in all of this pie in the sky free software nonsense needs to just opt out of society. No one *cares*. You'll get no money, no grattitude, there is nothing but abuse for the creative and financial reward for the s

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