Business Software Alliance Writes European Regulations?

Holger Blasum writes: "The European Commission's proposal for a directive on software patents making software patentable in Europe is announced today (the commission's proposal still will have to pass council and parliament). MSWord's "Author" field suggests that it comes straight from the BSA's director of public policy. See the Eurolinux press release for a brief summary, more details can be found at the FFII website. Or, if you prefer French, zdnet.fr has some coverage too." The EC's site has several webpages about the proposal: a main page, FAQ, and the official copy of the proposal. Comparing the proposal-as-released with the draft obtained by Eurolinux, many sections are identical, some sections are nearly identical and a few sections have been completely rewritten.

Comments

Re:Europe playing catchup - badly

[Znork]

In the computer age of patents, you wouldnt patent a lightbulb, you'd patent a 'Method of Producing Light By Artificial Means', and simultaneously patenting every method of artificially producing light.

You wouldnt patent a specific way of copying paper, you'd patent 'copying paper', wether done by hand, by photocopier, by taking a photo of the paper or by typesetting it and printing it several times.

Patents no longer cover specific methods of doing things, they cover every way of achieving a specific goal, something never intended by the idea of patenting in the first place.

It's prima facie obvious: SW patents are a farce

[DaveWood]

Even assuming you have a patent office staffed with geniuses gifted with eidetic memories, software patents mean that _every programmer_ must know the _entire patent base_ (6-7 figures already), and keep up (hundreds of applications per day)! Since this is obviously impossible, every piece of code ever written becomes a ticking time bomb of patent litigation. In American civil court, these cases take years (sometimes decades!) and cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to defend.

They are, in short, nothing other than a naked gift to large companies, with no demonstrable or even plausible public benefit. They are a versatile weapon, with which Microsoft, and a few others, can bludgeon their competitors and enemies.

I was shocked to see the EU contemplating them... but apparently things aren't so different from one hemisphere to the other.