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EU votes today on legalising software patents
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  #1  
Old 05-18-2004
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EU votes today on legalising software patents
Taken from -> EU votes today on legalising software patents by Matt Whipp

Quote:
Software developers concerned that Today the EU Council of Ministers will vote on a directive to legalise software patents in Europe, causing concern among software developers.

Many that oppose such legislation fear that the Council, which represents the governments of the EU states, will vote in favour of the current draft, as the group is made up of members of various national patent offices that are backed by big corporates.

Organisations such as the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) fear software patents will stifle innovation, particularly for SMEs which will not be able to afford the potential licence fees or the legal risk of developing new software for fear of encroaching accidentally upon a patent. Furthermore, these patents may be owned by companies that do not actually develop software at all, but simply hoard patents.

In the US, there is the bizarre situation of Forgent Networks, which claims ownership of the JPEG patent. It is simultaneously recommending the image compression format be admitted as an international standard while suing 31 companies for using it.

Last September the European Commission voted for major changes that explicitly outlawed software patents. The Council of Ministers redrafted the directive without addressing the issues raised by the Commission and explicitly including software patents, saying that some of the Commission's recommendations violated international treaties such as TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellecual Property). However, this article by Jonas Maebe claims exactly the opposite is true.

The FFII claims the Council is likely to vote in favour of its draft of the directive, hoping it will be rubber stamped by EU ministers. But if the ministers want the recommendations of the European Commission considered, the FFII fears the patent administrators will try and stall the directive, allowing the national European patent offices to continue granting software patents as they are currently doing.
  #2  
Old 05-18-2004
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Software patents should not be allowed. Why should developers that work independently, and develop interesting new technologies have to pay licence fees because someone else has already filed a patent before them. In the other fields of science, biotech etc. patents are fine, because there aren't a large mass of people that have the means, funding, or time to devote to pursuing patentable inventions, and the chances of accidentaly duplicating someone elses efforts are negligable. Where software is concerned, there are a vast number of talented professionals and hobbyists working on their own projects at any given time, and the scope to re-invent the proverbial 'wheel' is likely happening all to frequently, but unknown to others. Lets hope the vote fails. Software has enough protection by virtue of being compiled into machine code, so we don't need intellectual software patents as well.
  #3  
Old 05-18-2004
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Well the proposition made by the Irish presidency was the most pro-software-patent project up to date. They've really been paying attention to smaller companies instead of Microsoft & the likes...
  #4  
Old 05-18-2004
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European Council Approves Software Patents

Quote:
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."
  #5  
Old 05-19-2004
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It's not really amazing when you look at the list of sponsors for the Irish Presidency -> EU sponsorship
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