Slashdot Mirror
More on European Software Patents
pdajames writes "An article at ZDNet UK says that the EU bureaucrats aren't even considering the numerous anti-software patenting opinions out there. According to a well-connected lobbyist group, they have determined there will be patents, and the only question is what kind."
Those lobbying in favour of software patents wanted to have the final vote next week. But it has now been decided (sorry, link in German) that it will be held in September, as planned originally.
The patents might not have so much effect in Europe, as patents take 7-10 years to be granted, and there is a 9 month period in which objections to the patent can be voiced before a patent is granted.
In Soviet Russia, beowulf clusters imagine YOU!
I e-mailed my MEP and was most supprised to get a reply at all, unfortunatly it wasn't anything good.
:o( I wonder how much he got paid to say that?
He said that after cairful consideration and consultation with industry they were a necessary step to allow the EU to remain competative
Engineers are supposed to be ethical as well as commercially minded, and consider the social consequences of their actions - something he seems to have forgotten when he became a politician.
Beep beep.
This probably the easiest way to be active on these kind of matters if you are joe/jill the average user.
Join the Electronic Frontier organizations:
Electronic Frontier Foundation - USA
Electronic Frontier Finland
Electronic Frontier Canada
Electronic Frontiers Australia
Electronic Frontier Ireland
Electronic Frontier Sverige
Electronisk Forpost Norge
Electronic Frontier Ireland
Electronic Frontiers Italy
(use them as google search terms)
No there aren't just the opposite seems to be.
A NG =en
EuroLinux already has more than 150.000 signatures against software patents
http://petition.eurolinux.org/signatures.html?L
And in an open discussion 90% of the people affected opted for no software patents. The European commission closed the discussion with the words, that there was a financial majority (of 10%). So you basically can see where the train comes from. The last hope to stop this really is the european parlament.
Given the state of the european software industry consisting 95% of individuals and small companies, the negative economic impact of such a regulation really could be severe. The the European Commission is playing the three monkey games of not listening not hearing and not talking in this matter.
The article is from the 26th of June and states that the proposal is due for parliamentary vote on June 30th (earlier than originally planned).
However, the vote has been postponed and is not going to take place on June 30th, at least according to more recent reports by the usually well-informed German heise.de news service.
heise.de news article (in German)
This seems to contradict the article at least in spirit and gives the Open Source/Free Software community more time to gain momentum and turn the vote into the right direction.
EuroLinux already has more than 150.000 signatures against software patents
A NG =en
http://petition.eurolinux.org/signatures.html?L
And in an open discussion 90% of the people affected opted for no software patents. The European commission closed the discussion with the words, that there was a financial majority (of 10%). So you basically can see where the train comes from. The last hope to stop this really is the european parlament.
Canßt find the link to this now, this discussion was around two years ago, and I want to leave anybody to the interpretation himself.
All I can say is with one of the former commissions there was a huge bribe scandal, the main problem is that there is no real control mechanism for the commission and sometimes some really black sheep are in there.
Also something to consider
Given the state of the european software industry consisting 95% of individuals and small companies, the negative economic impact of such a regulation really could be severe. The the European Commission is playing the three monkey games of not listening not hearing and not talking in this matter. In the end the result will have to be paid by every european citizen with a lot more people being unemployed by the tech sector.
I saw this yesterday; I emailed two of the MEPs in my constituency whose parties I was aware were in support of software patents (I would have liked to write, but with a 30 June deadline the letter wouldn't have time to get there). I also emailed Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament and another Irish MEP. Within six minutes, I had a response from his assistant.
:) I don't fully understand it, but have replied asking for clarification. So far, I'm pleased that he has (a) taken a position and (b) taken one that regards the issue with some care. I also thanked his assistant for correcting me about the vote on 30 June.
The gist of it is this: the European Parliament report will be taken during the session 1-4 September. The European Liberal Group (european meta-party of which Mr. Cox is a member) hasn't taken a definitive position on the report yet, but as it has been going through the committee system they have taken a very restrictive position regarding what can be patented.
I won't copy-paste the euro-speak here.
This means there's plenty of time. Write to your MEP explaining, politely, how you think software patents would harm our industry in your country and in Europe as a whole, and perhaps explaining the problems inappropriate use software patents have caused elsewhere. The idea of patents is to encourage innovation - explain why software patents don't do this.
No response from the other two yet; I'll be writing to them and following up by phone.
Dave
", i.e. there are no EU-wide elections."
I don't know who modded you as interesting, but this statement is utterly false. The first elections date back from 1979, the whole parliament is renewed every 5 years and they are the one making laws (directives is more precise).
Now a question : when was the last time you voted ?
For your information, you can also visit this site europa.eu.int (especially EU at a glance and EU Parliament)
#include "coucou.h"
EU is becoming a dictatorship, with the bureaucrats making more and more laws You will find that while the European Commission, whose members are choosen by the States and not elected, propose many of the EU laws, they have to be approved by the European Parliament to become law. They also have to be approved by the European Council, made up of the ministers of the relevent domain (ie financial ministers, agricultural ministers, trade ministers depending on the law proposal) from the 15 states. It's a complex system, but not undemocratic: all the actors involved are either directly elected (MEPs), members of elected national governements (The ministers) or choosen by national governements (members of the EU commission). Hardly a dictatorship. And the citizens don't even have any chance to proclaim their opinions, i.e. there are no EU-wide elections Excuse me, but I thought EU citizens voted every four years for their MEPs, who go on voting on EU law poposals? Does that not count as an EU-wide election? Of course, that does not prevent industry lobbyists from pushing hard for the passage of laws in their interest, but sadly this is a practice all too frequent in the world. Without the EU, it would simply take place at a national level in much the same way.
What do you know about World Politic? Find out in this quiz
Software Patents are bad because they are oxymoronic; to summarize that link, the patent system was set up to protect certain kinds of things, and software is not that kind of thing. As a result, software patents fail miserably because patent protection is not appropriate. In order to make it appropriate, it has been twisted to the point of absurdity.
Wrong. There is little pressure from the US. It's more up to the lawyer pressure groups. There are not even business interests. The DIHT (german Chamber of Commerce), German Monopolkomission (monopoly commission) were against it while the ministry of justice was slightly in favour. Learn more about at http://swpat.ffii.org
Open Forum Europe got stitched up.
The patent directive is far from a done deal, as the success of last week's lobbying in Brussels shows.
The important point, that the journalist didn't realise, was that Mike Banahan was not talking about a consultation run by the European Commission or the European Parliament, but about a *consultation run by a firm of lobbyists* who had been hired by a consortium of big business associations. (Remember that OFE's response was paraded not by the Commission, but by this consortium of associations).
So the real story is
The subsequent paragraphs take on a completely different dimension when you realise they are about the lobbying firm for the business associations, not the European institutions:
The quotes are echoed in this posting to the FSF Europe-UK list:
The parliament vote is now expected in the first week of September. The Socialist group in particular is very divided. But internal party-group positions are expected to take shape this week, while the MEPs are all gathered together in Strasbourg, before they disperse for the long summer recess. It is therefore worth contacting MEPs now, sooner rather than later, to have maximum effect.
Contact details for UK MEPs can be found by clicking on the map here
(This information sent to ZDnet on Thursday night, but apparently not of interest).
But in effect there are only three weeks to go, because for most of that time the MEPs are away on holiday.
To be more precise:
- Next week [30/06 - 04/07] we can lobby in Strasbourg (Session).
- The week after [07/07 - 11/07] we can lobby in Brussels (Committee meetings).
... after that there is no official business scheduled all summer ...- Finally [25-29/08] there is one week in Brussels before the September session which starts on 1st September.
The next two weeks are critical.Most of the political groups will decide in Strasbourg this week what line they will take, before all the MEPs go away.