European Council Approves Software Patents 482
A. S. Bradbury writes "ZDNet reports that the EU Council has voted to pass changes to European patent law that will allow the patentability of software. See the FFII for more coverage. Currently, the FFII states 'The Irish Presidency's proposal was passed, with support from Germany, France and most of the other countries whose ministers had publicly promised to oppose or at least abstain. The only no vote came from Spain (to be confirmed), Italy and a few others abstained.' As you may remember, Germany had previously promised to vote against software patents. The FFII news page seems to have been showing growing support in European countries for the FFII and other organisations fighting against software patents, but unfortunately that wasn't enough. So, what now? The European elections are approaching, which means MEPs might be more willing to listen to our views than normal. Slashdot has covered software patents in Europe before."
First Patent (Score:3, Funny)
We'll just have to ask Monty Python... (Score:2, Funny)
crap. good thing i live in the united states, no software patents here!!!!:)
Game: What Would You Patent? (Score:3, Funny)
I'm going to patent the Windows 2000 source code that is all over the internet! (disclaimer: I never downloaded or looked at any part of that code)
Anyone else?
May I be (Score:2, Interesting)
I mean, talk about a stab in the back.
Re:May I be (Score:5, Interesting)
and you're surprised because why? contradiction, hypocrisy and breaking promises are the hallmark of liberal, representative democracy.
think of this: the number of domestic votes a country like, say, germany has that would be swayed by an issue like this is very minimal. the amount of potential campaign contributions from major software vendors, contributions that can translate directly to votes, is big. the outcome is obvious.
remember that a liberal democracy is a system whereby the rulers get votes from the poor and money for the rich while promising to protect each from the other.
Re:May I be (Score:2)
Re:May I be (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:May I be (Score:3, Insightful)
"Well, I do dabble in politics on the side."
"Good. Here's a list of bills I'd like you to introduce. If they pass, you'll get a little something extra in your Christmas bonus packet this year. If they don't, well, you know the consequences..."
"Mandatory Overtime?"
"You got it, kid."
Re:May I be (Score:3, Insightful)
Hmmm... option 1) Have your employer arrested. Consequences: Further more subtle harrasment at work, company profits tank, company may go bankrupt, sending you job hunting. Or... option 2) Take the thick wad of money on the table, introduce bills that make your employer more profitable, you get big bonuses and high job security.
The number of principled people who would take option 1 over option 2, and also be the type to 1) run in, and 2) be able to win an election is so vanishingly small as to be non
Re:May I be (Score:3, Insightful)
I hope you don't mind if I take the liberty of correcting a slight editorial error...
Daniel
Audio files and transcripts (Score:5, Informative)
I'm disappointed that the German government voted for after initially saying they'd at least abstain -- my understanding is that they could have held up the process if they had at least abstained. :-(
Re:Audio files and transcripts (Score:4, Informative)
Your understanding is correct. As odd as it may sound, an abstention is equivalent to a no vote. The reason for this is that only yes votes are counted (rather than ration yes vs no). So, an abstention is a vote which is not yes, and thus equivalent to a no. Difference is only symbolic, no impact on the outcome.
I'm also disappointed that Germany didn't do more (and that they didn't insist that their entire amendment got into the final text, rather than just the unimportant part).
I'm also disappointed about the Luxembourgish delegation: Although Butcher's Son did get 6a in, an abstention would have been in order. Especially since Greece would probably have followed suit.
Re:Audio files and transcripts (Score:2)
I say we boycott... (Score:5, Funny)
What the hell am I talking about?
Think about righteous patents for once (Score:4, Insightful)
If the european patent office seems more sane than the us (a little like the japanese seem to do) and not issue patents for obviously stupid stuff, the problem might not be that big
Re:Think about righteous patents for once (Score:5, Insightful)
It's much more of a problem that obvious things are patented -- for example, a LOT of webshop features [ffii.org] that you would think obvious have been the subject of patents that have been issued by the European Patent Office.
The point of the directive, as the EU parliament made it, was to outlaw all software patents. The point of the directive as the council made it (and the ones who actually wrote it are the patent office officials) is to allow all those patents in practice.
Re:Think about righteous patents for once (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Here we go again (Score:2)
Re:Think about righteous patents for once (Score:3, Informative)
So where do I apply... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So where do I apply... (Score:2, Informative)
Well, except that software still isn't patentable in Europe (according to the law).
Parliament gets to speak next. It must pass both EP and Council when it's co-decision. This was not such a surprising result.
Re:So where do I apply... (Score:2)
Yet technically (0,0,255) would be the hottest
So what? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Saving IP is one thing, but to limit someone to do the same thing with totally different code is another.
already stated but once again. Fuck.
Re:So what? (Score:3, Interesting)
1. OSS is a prime example of software that can be developed anywhere.
2. One cannot expect to gain as much from suing an OSS project as from suing a corporate software developer.
3. How do you even go about suing an OSS project? Who would be the defendant?
4. The patent wars are only beginning. It can get much worse.
So, the point I am making is that not many OSS projects have been sued _yet_, but that's far from saying it will stay that way.
And besides,
Re:So what? (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you heard the people who complain that Red Hat no longer ships mp3 codecs for audio players, or video players (not just certain codecs but the players themselves)? Or a driver for read-only NTFS support? Software patents are the reason. Debian has the non-US repos for these things. Suse and Mandrake are European already, which is why they ship these things by default. Be prepared to either see these things taken out of Mandrake and Suse, or
Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
1) A method for translating program source code into a machine runnable format.
2) A method for displaying a computer's file system (see earlier patent for details) based on the top of a typical desk.
3) A number system based solely on the numbers 1 and 0.
4) A method for having sex with a computer (you know it'll happen one day... and when it does... I'm rolling in the cash)
-m
Re:Finally! (Score:2)
The law is a bit different here you see.
Passed AGAINST the will of the parliament (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Passed AGAINST the will of the parliament (Score:5, Insightful)
Moreover, this is not the only example of the EU bureaucrats pushing a decision in spite of the opposition of the Parliament or the will of (ha ha) us poor taxpaying sods.
This story [theregister.com] tells you how, with the help of US airline lobbyists, the EU Commissars trampled the European privacy laws and made a mockery of all these human right principles they are supposed to defend.
Here is the moral: If you pile up another layer of government and transnational bureaucrats on top of already corrupt governments, you'll not get Beauty, Truth and Good. You'll get the best laws money can buy. And they'll be bought indeed.
RMS in London with MEP candidates, this Friday (Score:5, Informative)
The talk will then be followed by round table comments and discussion by Euro-candidates from all of the political parties. Come along, and tell them what you think.
The event is free, and all are welcome.It's a 300 seater lecture theatre, and this has had to be organised at the last minute, so help us get the word out. Let's show the candidates that swpat is something we really care about.
Re:Passed AGAINST the will of the parliament (Score:5, Informative)
Apparently the Germans forced some changes through (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Apparently the Germans forced some changes thro (Score:5, Insightful)
Not quite. Their amendments were gutted of the most important parts. Here an extract of the Italian speech, nicely summing up the situation:
Basically, the German amendment was meant to define what "technical contribution" means (i.e. sth technical, with the exception of anything that happens within the computer itself). Now, what's left are vague formulations such as "computer programs as such are not patentable", etc. which have been shown to be weasely and highly ambiguous.Re:Apparently the Germans forced some changes thro (Score:3, Informative)
The new parliament will have to vote on this, and the new parliament is going to have a lot more right-wingers from several countries (Germany, England). We will have to see how they vote.
Re:Apparently the Germans forced some changes thro (Score:2)
And in other news... (Score:5, Insightful)
...the Pope is found to be Polish, and bears are found to be rather partial to crapping in the woods.
C'mon, didn't we all see this coming? Did we really think that those unelected officials which govern in our name would make a decision that reflects our best interests?
As i've just posted in Groklaw minutes ago... (Score:5, Interesting)
The world keeps getting dumber (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The world keeps getting dumber (Score:2)
Thanks to the new patent laws... (Score:5, Funny)
Er...wait...what am I saying?
This is Good (Score:5, Interesting)
This will hopefully hasten the collapse of the software industry, highlighting exactly why software patents are bad.
The next 10 years could really be a mess, but hopefully people will learn from it.
This is all so typical. There is always someone, somewhere trying to twist the system to squeeze out some self-benefit, but always at the greater cost of society (and ironically, also usually at the long term cost of the selfish people themselves.)
Re:This is Good (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a bit more pestimistic of things. Once things are into law and they need to be fix, things gets more complicated rather than scrapping the whole thing.
For example, personal taxation. Another example, the inconsistances of corporation and individual rights. Another example, international trade laws and tarffs.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Hope Springs Eternal (Score:5, Insightful)
In some respects, innocense is ignorance; do not be ashamed of innocense.
God, fucking stupid politicians, they don't know shit about software and should keep away.
Problem is, politicians are by nature corrupt. No, every politician is not corrupt; but many are, and the carreer attracts those that love power for the sake of power. It doesn't take but one or two of those to ruin the whole batch, as they introduce corrupt bills (such as this patent "reform") that are sponsored by those with deep pockets and deeper self-interest.
In this case, the politicians that don't know shit about software were encouraged to vote, and educated by, the ones with the most self-interest in this perversion of knowledge ownership. And all they saw were the most "important" players in the software industry backing the bill.
The problem isn't politicians, per se, its the corporate influence on politicians that fuck things up so badly. Once the government starts serving the corporations instead of the people, we are screwed. And that has started to happen.
Re:This is Good (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally I would rather prevent it in the first place.
Different laws... (Score:3, Insightful)
The law systems in Europe allow for less bullying by corporations. Therefore, I'm not overly concerned.
Re:Different laws... (Score:5, Insightful)
Software is already covered by copyright, which protects a certain implementation of something, so the intention of software patents implicitly is to extend beyond the implementation to the very concept of doing or accomplishing something.
Software, unlike pretty much any other field, becomes twice-covered by both patents and copyright.
Re:Different laws... (Score:4, Insightful)
As such, since a patent is (supposed to) protect an *application of an idea*, not the idea itself, patents are very applicable to engineering, and not at all to math/science. You can't patent an algorithm; however, you can patent applying that algorithm to a problem in a novel way.
I.E. - turbo coding? Not patentable. Using turbo codes as your coding method for voice over RF? Patentable, but only if the use of turbo codes enables significant advances over the current state of voice over RF. This is arguable.
That's why engineering is different from science.
Now, why is software engineering different from classical engineering? It isn't. However, a lot of bad software patents have been granted. If you're going to grant patents, you need to grant software patents as well; there is nothing fundamentally different about software allowing it to be treated differently than a circuit board. However:
The implication of patentable software is threefold:
1) Reverse-engineering of patented software to determine how it works must be legal under any circumstance.
2) There must be no copyright protection for source code.
3) The entire source code must be included in the patent application.
This places software on a level with hardware, which is where it belongs.
Yeah, great! (Score:5, Insightful)
The sad part is that I believe that most of the propatent folks really believed that they are doing the software firms a favour and helping local developers up on their feet again. The Irony! The only thing that will probably happen is that the bigshots (i.e. Microsoft and the like) will further dominate the market instead of, growing, newcomers that could produce the next big thing and create jobs instead of outsorcing.
Let me be first first American to say: (Score:4, Insightful)
Look, I feel bad for you, really, but all we've been hearing for years on Slashdot is that Americans are idiots who keep electing bad leaders. The USA doesn't have a patent on bad lawmaking, so please keep that in mind, would you?
Re:Let me be first first American to say: (Score:2)
That apart, you still have a really bad leader, although we can argue as to whether he was actually elected or not.
The Italian leader was elected, the Greeks have also made some interesting choices recently and as for the Russians . . . think Boris 'the drunk' Yeltsin and his KGB successor.
Re:Let me be first first American to say: (Score:3, Insightful)
All kinds of insults were the first thing to go through my mind but then I realised I was letting myself be dragged down to your level. If I do that, you'd beat me with experience as is clear from your post. So lets not.
On the facts then: the only reason this got started in the first place was US pressure. (Not unlike the passenger data treaty for EU citizens traveling to the US.) That is political pressure. From those same US lawmakers we indeed do despise so much over here in Europe. For their complete i
Re:Let me be first first American to say: (Score:4, Funny)
Damn... (Score:3, Interesting)
But there does look like there is some hope quote "The catch is that if the Parliament still doesn't like software patents, it has to have a majority of all MEPs to put its amendments, which means that in practice they need a two-to-one or three-to-one majority in the chamber,"
Hopefully this draft gets stopped in the next round of voting. If not, this could be a very bad thing for Europe developers of OSS.
Also on news.com.com.com (Score:2)
I'd hope that the EU Parliment votes the way it should and not approve the new resolution. From what that article says, it seems that opponents of the new draft have an arduous task ahead of them.
The BBC has a different story (Score:3, Interesting)
They say that the patent plans have been shelved indefinately. Who is right?
Re:The BBC has a different story (Score:5, Informative)
They are talking about a different proposal, for having a single patent 'territory' covering the whole EU, rather than patents within individuual countries. The directive on what is patentable will still have to be implemented by the individual countries, even if the EU-wide patent never happens.
OK, Euro-voters, do your thing (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm in the US, so I can't do it this time. But to all the Europeans on Slashdot: Your own governments just lied to you about an EXTREMELY important issue. Your own representatives said they would vote against software patents, and then voted for them. Your next move is very simple.
1) Send a letter to the appropriate bureaucrat stating that you are upset, and inform them that they have lost your vote.
2) In the next election, send a letter to their opponent telling them why the incumbent pissed you off (software patent support), along with a check.
3) Vote for the challenger.
4) Watch as a few people wake up and realize that the voting public is not completely stupid and full of sheep.
5) Profit (not in money, but in Freedom).
Your turn now. You take out those bosos while we work against George "Fascist" Bush here on this side of the Atlantic. If you don't, you only encourage our slide into an information dark ages.
first patent! woo! (Score:2)
Holder company (Score:2)
link anyone?
Slashdot applies for European Patent (Score:3, Funny)
In a surprising development, internet news site Slashdot has become one of the first companies to apply for a European Software patent. The patent, describing the proccess of "seeing into the mysterious future by becoming a Slashdot subscriber", has caused much controversy over karma whoring. In response to the controversy, one Slashdot reader said "Imagine a beowulf cluster of karma whoring /. subscribers rushing to apply for various patents at the announcement that EU software patents have been approved."
In related news Slashdot is reportedly in the proccess of filing for another EU patent for the beowulf cluster.
Full Story at 10:00
Re:Slashdot applies for European Patent (Score:3, Funny)
In other news (Score:2, Funny)
Not all bad news, though. Microsoft reported that its cash reserves decreased 0.0023% in the last day alone.
I was part of the Dutch FFII delegation (Score:5, Informative)
We were rather lucky, since one of us had good contacts with one of those MP's, who was sympathetic to us and had considerable influence, resulting in a quick arrangement to hand over the petition. Normally, the procedure would have taken weeks.
Many MP's were quite interested in our information, and were particularly concerned about the fact that our minister of Economic Affairs, Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst, who was to vote in the EU council on our country's behalf, had apparently misinformed our national parlement.
They even announced they would be holding an extra debate, probably tomorrow.
During the day, we were kept informed through our mobile phones. It was nerve wreckening. We kept receiving conflicting reports about wether we would be getting a majority against or not. Near the end, we even heard that the Netherlands would probably have the deciding vote! You can understand that nearly drove us crazy.
Eventually, the news broke...
And again, mister Bolkestein seems to have played a crucial role on the side of the software patent supporters.
On behalf of all the people in the Netherlands, I would like to apologize to all the people of Europe for mister Bolkestein. He makes me ashamed to be Dutch.
The fight is not over, however! It will be more difficult now, but the European Parlement seems to be really pissed, and most Eastern members that are joining the EU now (and will be part of the parliament after the next elections in June) appear to be opposed against software patents.
Also, it amazed me how easy it can be to get in touch with influential people, as long as YOU KNOW THE RIGHT PERSONS that have the relevant connections!
In spite of the defeat, I'm still impressed with the difference we managed to make today. At least more people in our government are informed now. And we won't be giving up the fight! We made a few mistakes the last few days (hey, we were new at this), but we also accomplished a lot and also learned A LOT of lessons.
I would like to end this post with two pieces of advice:
1) I'm calling upon ALL European Citizens to VOTE IN THE NEXT EUROPEAN ELECTIONS! Even though there is much wrong in European politics, not using your vote and at least applying that little influence you do would be insanely foolish!
2) Let's all coordinate our lobbying efforts! If you have even just one or two hours a week available to help out, spend it by contacting certain EP's (preferably try to start a dialogue with one or two specific EP's, so you can concentrate on them and build up more personal relations) and contact FFII to notify them of your efforts and inform them who you are in contact with. There were only five of us, and look how far we have come in only 5 days time!
Let's get to work! Autumn will be upon us before we know it! And the elections are even less than a month away!
Vote Whom? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is SO frustrating and SUCH a shame for democracy.
Sometimes you can't eat as much as you want to vomit... (Manchmal kann man nicht soviel Essen wie man Kotzen möchte)
If I could have pushed this over +5, (Score:3, Interesting)
This is exactly what you need to communicate, that it's easier than you think to influence people in the right position to do something about this mess.
There's also a big point in making things visible and digestible by the general populace. Most people don't know patent law, but use the analogy about patenting the recipe for bread, and they get it pretty quickly.
The FFII people have done an excellent job, but with a clearer message and more planning for the demo etc, they would h
sigh. (Score:5, Interesting)
Choke the system (Score:3, Interesting)
"open source and anti-globalisation movement" (Score:5, Insightful)
Now WHO THE FUCK told them they could throw those two cats in the same bag?
Still has to go back through the Parliament (Score:4, Informative)
On the other hand, some amendments were made at the last minute which convined a number of the representatives; since the parliament version was also this bill with amendments, they might have actually passed that version.
EU beauracracy promises patent filing not patents (Score:5, Insightful)
These are the people who have 80 page specifications for a bus steering wheel. Can you imagine the requirements for a successful patent that has to be passed in 25 countries at the same time?
Re:EU beauracracy promises patent filing not paten (Score:3, Informative)
The UK is indeed a member state of the European Union.
http://europa.eu.int/abc/european_countries/eu_mem bers/uk/index_en.htm [eu.int]
Argh! (Score:4, Insightful)
--rhad
Another nail in the coffin of the West (Score:3, Insightful)
This is just going to force innovation away from the West and into the hands of emerging powers like China and India.
While the US and the EU commit ritual suicide via patent litigation and red-tape, the East will be making leaps and bounds in closing the innovation gap and capturing market share.
Outsourcing has already created the business channels and the beginnings of infrastructure to allow those nations to compete directly with the West. The only thing missing is innovation, and here it comes.
Now is the moment (Score:3, Interesting)
1 - Create one OSS/FS patent pool for defensive protection
2 - Enhance Open Source Licenses patent-defensives
3 - Ask/"Open Letter" to *all* companies supporting Open Source movement asking for explicit promise to not use software patents to attack Open Source software. Please, ask to IBM, HP, Oracle, Sun, CA, Veritas, Novell, Fujitsu, Dell, etc.
4 -
Blocking by IP address? (Score:3, Funny)
Contact your EMPs! (Score:3, Insightful)
I would further like to encourage German readers to write an email or fax to the federal minister of Justice [bmj.bund.de] to complain about her decision and to support journalists in decoding the network of what seems (on first sight) filthy lobbyism and inconsistent behaviour. Written letters and faxes are expected to have more impact due to their tangible nature.
If you don't spend EUR 1 on a stamp now, you might have to spend EUR 10000 on lawyers later, or get fined for using an algorithm that somebody happens to have patented without you knowing.
[E-mail me if you can't find your rep contact details but would like to do something about it.]
Ideas should be free.
Re:What do you think? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What do you think? (Score:3, Insightful)
Small companies will have their ideas stolen, and will have a choice: either fight, and end up going under due to financial burden, or try to compete, and hope that they have a significantly better mousetrap. Given the software patents that I have seen, that is not likely, and the monopolies will win (yet again).
As for Open Source - we have alway
Re:What do you think? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think Jesse Jackson put it best "Capitalism without capital is just an ism".
Too late (Score:5, Funny)
Too late, I already patented that idea. Pay up!
Re:What do you think? (Score:2, Insightful)
Please, read up a bit about software patents and it's effects before posting. The ONLY ones to benefits are the very largest companies and patent lawyers.
Re:What do you think? (Score:5, Informative)
Besides, what kind of dorky attitude is it that nobody should be allowed to build on an idea for twenty years?!? Imagine that somebody has had a trivial idea and you get the same idea from elsewhere, and build something much larger on it. Well, you cannot use your ideas for the next twenty years if the first person has patented it.
You seem to be saying there should be not patents (Score:5, Informative)
If you put it out there and don't get a patent then you can use it and it then becomes prior art to any patents. If you can't afford a patent lawyer then just put it out there. If someone else patents it then yours is prior art to theirs.
Besides, what kind of dorky attitude is it that nobody should be allowed to build on an idea for twenty years?!? Imagine that somebody has had a trivial idea and you get the same idea from elsewhere, and build something much larger on it. Well, you cannot use your ideas for the next twenty years if the first person has patented it.
This concept can be held to any kind of patent. From engines to circuit boards to anything. So, your saying there should be no patents. No IP protections.
Re:You seem to be saying there should be not paten (Score:5, Insightful)
Yours is prior art to theirs _if_ you can _prove_ it is in court. Which rather requires that patent lawyer you couldnt afford in the first place.
If you cant afford to patent something there's no way you'll be able to defend yourself when someone else steals your idea, patents it and claims they were first, then proceeds to sue you for patent infringement on something you invented in the first place.
That sure is going to have such beneficial effects on that 'innovation' thing...
Re:You seem to be saying there should be not paten (Score:4, Informative)
One of the differences between how lawsuits tend to work in the USA versus how they tend to work in Europe is that in Europe, the winner is usually compensated for the costs they made. Which means that you _can_ afford a patent lawyer - if you have a solid case.
Re:You seem to be saying there should be not paten (Score:4, Informative)
bollocks. Just write down a description of your idea, have one or two people sign/date it, and have it notarized. No $500 an hour patent lawyer needed. This is what a group of patent lawyers told the software development group in a persentation on what we should keep an eye out for with regards to patentable work, while I was working at Optical Solutions in Minnesota. Note to those who have heard of it, mailing it to yourself doesn't hold up in court. You can steam open the envelope and reseal it with whatever you want inside. The lawyers said, repeatedly, have one or two people sign and date a description, and have that notarized. Cheap and easy way to establish prior art. Just don't loose it.
Re:You seem to be saying there should be not paten (Score:5, Insightful)
There are arguments to be made that patents are never good, for anything. And I have yet to see an independent study that proves that patents are a net benefit.
But that wasn't really what he was arguing. What he was arguing was that 20 years is way too long for patents in the software industry, even if you concept software should be patentable. The software industry has lifecycles of 2 to 5 years (most products inching closer to 2 than to 5), meaning you go through 4 to 10 iterations of your product before your patent expires. That's too much. 2 or 3 product iterations is ok, but more than that is not in the public interest. And remember that patents, copyrights and trademarks are meant to serve the public interest, not the corporate bottom line.
Besides, just look at the examples of long lasting patents on useful stuff that expired. Take the patent of RSA. Once that expired we've seen a dramatic upsurge in encryption products. Before it expired, ssh was a niche product, now it's often the only way to log into a system. That single expiration brought dramatic benefits to the entire software industry. I'm not saying the original inventors shouldn't have benefited from their invention, but the RSA patent held back strong encryption, and the products based on it, for two decades.
Besides, I think there's something seriously wrong if the only way we can reward inventors is by handing them absolute monopolies for two decades. Solve the cause, not the symptoms.
Re:You seem to be saying there should be not paten (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes I am saying that there should be NO patents. Patents have held up great break through's in the adoption of technology, over, and over, and over again!
Examples:
1) Car, Henry Ford to mass produce cars had to circumvent the car patent.
2) Laser, until the patent expired lasers were for the rich or unique. Now you can buy a laser at every cor
Re:What do you think? (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand, you can build whatever you want using whatever ideas that are available in your own home for personal use without any concern for patent issues. That is why I am not too concerned about this.
So, all of the geeks will have the cool tools, and all the poor lusers will have to pay 'Acme Software' for their fix.
Re:What do you think? (Score:3, Insightful)
You are right that if I am a megacorp with millions of dollars I have a good chance at being able to license any particular patent for proprietary software development. I happen not to be a megacorp, and I happen to develop free software. I don't realistically have a chance to
Maybe your right (Score:3, Insightful)
It Doesn't Work That Way. (Score:5, Insightful)
Patents may have been conceived as a means to protect "the little guy," but nowadays, they're nuclear weapons on a very small battlefield. Your bombshelter is not deep enough.
-Hope
Re:What do you think? (Score:3, Insightful)
Copyright law already provides authors with protection from their works being stolen. The concept that ideas are ownable (which is what software patents boil down to) is silly and wrong.
Re:What do you think? (Score:5, Insightful)
This whole software-patent thing has nothing at all to do with protecting ideas. Right now, anyone can get a degree, download the java sdk and eclipse and write good software. By screwing everything up so that you need a legal department to write code, the big software companies hope to make it so that little guys are excluded.
The goal is to create what economists call 'barriers to entry' into the software development industry. Because barriers to entry make it expensive to enter the industry, firms can increase prices farther than they otherwise could because competition will only enter the market if their potential profits exceed the start-up cost. Creating a menace to FLOSS is icing on the cake.
I know, I know, IHBT IHL and I'll HAND. I just wanted to explain this to the people who modded the parent up or read it.
Re:Let me just be the first to say (Score:3, Insightful)
And now they want people to care enough to vote?! Not me.
Re:Euros == Liars and Pushovers (Score:4, Insightful)
Why do some people *need* to hate an entire culture of people? This decision within the EU doesn't prove that Europeans are liars and pushovers anymore than it would mean that if passed in any other country. What it *does* mean is that politicians are politicians regardless of what country they are in and will always cater to special interests, regardless of what those who elect them actually want.
Re:Sad (Score:3, Interesting)
Quite the opposite. We need to hurry up and get Sterling into the Euro. Then the dollar will go through the floor, the American economy will collapse, and maybe the EU will stop modelling its laws on what's 'obviously' working so well for the USA.
Re:This just goes to show that democracy... (Score:3, Insightful)
"Democracy" does not mean that everyone gets their way all the time.
Also, you seem to be unaware that there is already (and has been) a law that forbids large organizations from "influencing" elections. This is exactly what the NRA was engaged in. It is no longer free speech when large groups of people are bullying others via elevated resources. If free speech is to work, it has to be fa