From Legal Wordings to Economic Reality

Holger Blasum writes "The directive on software patents in Europe is (currently) scheduled in the European Parliament mid June, so the 7-8 May parliament hearing on Software Patents: from legal wordings to economic reality might be a good opportunity to make your views heard in Brussels. There is some support for accomodation, and hitchhikers or taxistop might ease getting there. If you cannot attend, find (and invite) your EU representative here (hint: this database does not include so many email addresses, so it would not be wise to go for this in the very last minute; if the options overwhelm you try the "Legal affairs committee", and/or the persons you are likely to vote for in the 2004 elections)."

Comments

Re:SW patents favor Americans - don't let this pas

[Fulcrum of Evil]

Patents and copyright laws could have been what actually built a software industry in the United States.

Not by a mile. The current crop of big boys grew up in a far more lenient environment. Phoenix reverse engineered the BIOS from IBM's PC, which was a major contributor to the PC explosion. Nowadays, they'd be convicted felons. Sure, there was also a lot of patented stuff, such as the stuff from PARC, and the mountains of patents that IBM holds, but we didn't have to contend with any of the foolishness that we have today, like one-click patents, BT claiming rights to all of hypertext, and a small company staffed with lawyers holding a major part of the industry hostage for years (guess which one and win a prize!). Do anything innovative today and, should it be marketable, you may find that someone has filed a patent for it based on your product.

In conclusion, America is a land of contrasts.