Protest against planned European Software patents

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Jonas
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Post by *Jonas »

atomix wrote:However, widespread protests from critics of the measures have succeeded in pulling much of the sting from the proposed regulations. A compromise resolution passed by MEPs features numerous amendments, the most important of which limits the scope of software patents to "true inventions".
That is because of the european patent organisation! There are some differents between the european and the USpatent-law: In the USA the person who asks the first for a patent on something gets it. Not so in Europe! Here only the person who invented some thing at first can get the patent.
Example: If I'm planing lifting sunken ships by pumping ping-pong balls into it I can get the patent for this method in the USA because I'm the first who asked for this patent. In Europe I can't get it because Micky Mouse did so in the early sixtys.

And again: The EU has NOT the right to change the patent-laws! This is up to the european patent organisation with all his 27 members (get a list)!
The european patent organisation has absoluty nothing to do with the european union!
Only these members have the right to change anything on the patentlaw in europe! And for those heavy changes a 3/4 majority is nessesary!
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ghisler(Author)
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

According to Heise news, it isn't as bad as it looks like: The EU parliament has modified the explicitly forbidden patents for just software.
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Post by *oblomov »

ghisler(Author) wrote:According to Heise news, it isn't as bad as it looks like: The EU parliament has modified the explicitly forbidden patents for just software.
It's not as bad as it could be, but it's not as good as it should be either. Many things which should not be patentable still are.
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Post by *Jonas »

Here is an other document that could provide a little bit more clearness in this wood of myths: http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/amccarthy030901/amccarthy030901.pdf (2 pages, Myth and Truth in opposition)
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Post by *Thany »

Even *if* copying a file can the patented, and even if some software company would press chrages on you. What do you think a judge will say of this? I don't think it'll be hard to convince a judge that something very trivial has to be paid for, just because some company thought of it *after* you did but only patented it...

I honestly hope we still live in a "free world" in about 20 years... But I fear the worst :(
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

For example, Amazon has a patent to buy a gift over the Internet. There are thousands of similar patents which cannot be enforced at this time in Europe, but this would change dramatically if the new regulations would be accepted...
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soreno
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Post by *soreno »

2Thany
It would probably be an easy win in court. But which small companies has the resources (money) to go to court ?

A patent is a monopoly. Monopolies are only an advantage to whom owns it.
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=m4rc=
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Post by *=m4rc= »

Hi,
I just saw the fight is not over... EU is planning another attempt.
( http://swpat.ffii.org/index.en.html )

Source (in french)
http://www.presence-pc.com/news/n3546.html
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

Unfortunately yes. I am again participating in the protest on my homepage. The EU parliament has made a very wise decision, but the EU commission seems to ignore it. :(
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Post by *alexangus »

Seems like the Lawyers and Politicians are lining their pockets again. Probably also some big fish who have nothing better to do with their money.

Maybe one day the small guys will have to band together and register their software on Mars or a special underground run by hackers banned from Earth because nobody can be creative here any more.
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Post by *Leif »

Linus Torvalds and two other European software luminaries have thrown their weight behind a campaign to block software patents from being legitimized in Europe, ahead of a critical European Competitiveness Council decision later this week.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1731299,00.asp
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Post by *van Dusen »

There are some good news:

Florian Mueller wrote at Tue Dec 21, 2004 4:20 pm
(quoted from http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=254 ):
BIG SURPRISE IN BRUSSELS:
EU COUNCIL TAKES SOFTWARE PATENT DIRECTIVE OFF ITS AGENDA
DURING TODAY'S MEETING, ACCOMODATING A REQUEST BY POLAND

[...]

Brussels (21 December 2004). In a totally unexpected turn of events, the EU Council took its proposal for a software patent directive off its agenda during today's meeting. Actually the item had been slated for debateless approval as a so-called "A" item. Polish undersecretary Wlodzimierz Marcinski asked for additional time in order to be able to write up a "constructive declaration". The meeting chairman accomodated the request since no country raised objections. The EU Commission expressed its regrets but also accepted this decision.

[...]
See also: http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=99D343BC-0138-4570-B8A1-CC81303FDD39
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

Yes, the German news services golem.de and heise.de also wrote about it. It's shameful for western countries that a former communist country like Poland has to show them that they are acting undemocratically. It's incredible what tricks they tried to bring that regulation through, like putting it on the agenda of the fishing council - which really has nothing to do with computers, or do they fund phishing too now? ;)

Unfortunately it's only postponed for now...
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Post by *alek »

"The convoluted politics of the new Europe have saved us from software patents. Thank you, Poland. Now we'll be able to see which is the best approach, that of the EU or the US"

http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/other/0,39020682,39174245,00.htm
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39174217,00.htm
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

2alek
Unfortunately not yet - they wanted again to pass the new EU patents law today, and Poland only managed to delay it by one week...
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