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European MP Responds on Software Patents

Posted by michael on from the foad dept.

Wolfbone writes "The Guardian newspaper has a contributed article from the European politician Arlene McCarthy in which she responds to a previous article in the same organ by RMS and Nick Hill on the issue of software patents. If the appalling mixture of misrepresentation, non sequitur, solecism and faux-naivete does not make your blood boil, you are a cold fish indeed."

4 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. I think you're missing the point. by l-ascorbic · · Score: 3, Informative

    Euro MPs are next to useless because the European Parliament is virtually powerless.
    That's not to confuse them with MPs in the individual member states' parliaments, who occasionally do have some power.

    1. Re:I think you're missing the point. by cabalamat2 · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, they don't. The only area where the European Parliament has any real power is the E.U. budget. In all other cases, all it can do is give advice, which in turn can be ignored...

      This is wrong (whoever modded the post up shouldn't have). The powers of the EP are laid out here.

      Basically, it jointly decides EU laws on a co-decision basis with the Council. It has powers over non-compulsory expenditure only, which basically means the EP can't stop the Common Agricultural Policy.

  2. Re:Oh, please... by BenjyD · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.europarl.eu.int/factsheets/1_3_2_en.htm

    The parliament's powers:

    -"Parliament takes part in the drafting of Community legislation to varying degrees, according to the individual legal basis. It has progressed from a purely advisory role to codecision on an equal footing with the Council."

    -"The Treaty of Rome made provision for a motion of censure against the Commission (Article 201 (144) EC). It requires a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, representing a majority of Parliament's component members, in which case the Commission must resign as a body."

    So, the parliament is now equally important as the Council and has the power to force the Commision to resign. Just because most of the electorate don't bother reading about or even voting for the European Parliament doesn't make it meaningless.

  3. Re:As of the parliamentary hearing... by louee · · Score: 3, Informative

    The EU-Direcorate for the internal market conducted a survey in re. to software patents during the consulting process end 2000. They got 1450 responses, 1200 of those were in opposition to software patents. The only possibility they found to manipulate this into a positive result was to invent the concept of "economic majority" since the few positive responses came from cash-heavy companies.

    The report that came out of this, stated that while 91% of the individula responses were negative, and "economic majority" of the respondents favoured the introduction of software patents.