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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)."
Well I'm talking about the legislation PASSED by the US govt. Technically speaking, the Gov't doens't HAVE to listen to private interest groups.
That post was NOT meant as a troll, BTW.
I'm an American, and since I know how much you Europeans despise us, I think the best wake-up call for you guys is to remind you that SW patents will completely and utterly favor us Americans.
MSFT is American. IBM is American. Oracle is American. Americans have had years of experience developing patented SW technology. The only pieces of SW that I can think of that is European is SAP and MP3.
If Europeans decided to adopt SW patents, the US would eat you guys alive! They would send all their lawyers to Europe and patent everything and your mother. Not because we are smarter, but because we have much more experience in thinking of how to patent things.
How the hell could Europeans trust US technology, especially after things like Echelon being used to provide business intelligence against European bids?
The only way to do it is to keep Europe SW Patent free and allow Linux to develop unfettered, including using American patented SW technology freely. Right now, the only way that Europe will ever get an edge over the US is through Linux. European govenments don't have to worry about any backdoors in Windows, they don't have to worry about paying extra fees, or being held hostage by the patent developed by US companies.
The way it's going now, with all this patent tyranny that is going on the in the US, the only safe haven for Linux is in Europe, if and only if they keep patents out of Europe!
Call your representative and stop this insidious process of patentizing Europe!!!
"american companies"
that term always cracks me up, just like "american cars"
haha
People of EU you are realy needed there. Or feel the consequence.
Patenst will kill of small bis.
Patents will kill free sofware and yes Linux (GNU/Linux)
patents will make you pay like hell for software
patents give the big boys al the power.
Please make suer EU will be counter weight against USA.
Think about SCO vs IBM and free software. Well think of hunderd more cases against GNU/Linux.
Its time to ACT NOW!
SW Patents will lock programers after bars.
SW Patents wiil kill innovation.
SW Patenst will get you to pay the big boys more!
So come to Brussels and sowe the parlement that you don't agree!
Each representative has a declaration of financial interest in his page. ANyone knows where I can find that for US senators/congressmen?
you basically can find that information at opensecrets.org
my pet machine
..."entrepreneurs, law scholars, economists and politicians"...
...respectively of course.
Read as extreamely wealthy C?O's, their lawers, lobbyists, and the polititions they "donated money to."
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.