Slashdot Mirror
Torvalds And Cox Write EU Parliament On Patents
replicant_deckard writes "Linus Torvalds and Alan Cox have sent an open letter to the members of the European Parliament. They ask for strict limitations to software patents, argue for open standards and ask the members of the parliament to follow FFII's voting recommendations. Vote on the controversial software patents directive will be on Wednesday and it is expected to be a very close one. Well, do you believe these guys have any impact in Brussels?"
Given that Linux is generally stronger in Europe than the US (where MS pretty much rules all), comments from the likes of Torvalds and Cox will carry more weight than they would in the US.
Then again, hefty campaign donations from rich software firms probably carry a fair amount of weight too...
It should be interesting to see what happens.
Jedidiah
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
Politicians don't like being criticised, you should be nice to them then suggest something slightly different to their proposals. Criticise them and they go on the defensive.
I think it should be pretty clear by now (given the passage of the EU version of the DMCA, among other things) that the EU parliament and other European governments are very much in the pockets of corporations just like the U.S. government is. It's more a matter of degree than anything else.
That's why I don't think we who value our basic liberties have much time left. Others might ask why I haven't moved (I live in the U.S.), without realizing that there really isn't any place on the globe worth moving to. As far as I know, there isn't a single government on the planet that cherishes liberty and works towards maximizing that for its people. And even if there were, chances are most people wouldn't be able to go there anyway because of strict immigration laws.
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
I have helped to persuade my MEP to not-only agree with me, but to actively support the anti-swpat movement - and this is someone that previously didn't deal with tech issues at all (MEP Avril Doyle if anyone cares).
As in most things - the only way to guarantee that you lose a political debate is not to participate in the first place.
Am I the only one who wishes they'd asked someone to proofread before sending it off?? Maybe I'm being picky here, but I don't see grammatical errors as helping anyone's cause ...
The second most significant problem is that they give them a hyperlink to indicate what they can do to address these issues. They need to SPELL OUT what an MEP can do to help the anti-swpat cause. This means saying "this URL contains a list of amendments which are essential if this proposal is to protect competition and innovation in the European software industry".
Every additional second it takes for an MEP to figure out a) Why they should agree with you? or b) Given that they agree with you, what do they do? costs us votes.
There goes my karma, but I don't care. ;)
Vote.. really. What planet were you on during the last US election?
Bush wasn't voted into office. He was selected. With his brothers help. With lots of money.
The united states of embarassment is going to hell in a handbasket. And the sad thing is, that Europe wants to be JUST LIKE EM by passing ridiculous laws that further curtail human rights.
On a planet that has over 6 billion people, where at least half are living well below the poverty line, there is a country being run by a body of officials who allow corporations to secretly tell them what to do, how to do it, and where to do more of it, and people still are not clued in.
It's truly sad. Yes, I agree that voting is one very good option. However, I think it's gone far past this now, and it's time to bring power back to the people. I say this because any civil war in the united states will affect the lives of everyone on this planet, directly or indirectly.
Instead of trying to carve up Europe and dictate how other coutnries are run, the united states should be dealing with its own problems first and foremost, for a change.
Were you aware that the national debt of the US is now over 6.7 TRILLION dollars? That works out to 23 thousand+ USD per registered citizen of america. At a rate of 1.6 billion dollars a day EXTRA, I seriously doubt spending more money on things like Patriot act II, Iraq (87 billion.. ), and ignoring the problems on your own soil will do the world any good.
Wake up. Spread the word. Do something.
user@host$ diff
Software patents are bad for Linux.
-Linus
bite my glorious golden ass.
Not just vote, but personally, I'd vote for the non-incumbants in everything just to keep things fresh. If you keep new people in goverment and get rid of the old cruft (Strom Thurmon, anyone?) You've got a much better chance at having new ideas introduced and embraced. Unfortunately it's still money driven, but voting in new people will at least change where the money's coming from.
"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
to emphasize:
EU-Parlament: elected every 4th year by the people.
EU-Commision: selected by the governments (that are elected by each country's people)
EU-Council: based on a theme, representatives of the governments from each country gather (again they are elected by each country's people).
The discussion about EU's (or to come soon, the European Federation) parlament is that they have no real power, but they keep discussions happening, which could influence the commisions and/or the councils. But remember that EU is an experiment, not a script to follow. (I hope) We are not to become a new-roman empire like other federations.
(yes this can be compared with sex)
WRONG
therefore are not responsible to you (i.e., the people who pay the bills)
WRONG
WRONG
Of course the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who are now deciding on the issue of Software Patents do have to worry about being re-elected (cf. Article 190 of the Treaty establishing the European Community: each term is limited to five years).
Neither most of them nor most of their voters may now understand the importance of preventing software patents, but there is one thing to be made clear to the MEPs:
The impact of software patents (and this includes any compromise claiming to avoid them while leaving plenty of loopholes to grant them nonetheless) will be felt by the public at large, and as software patents hurt companies large and small , and force them to eliminate jobs all across Europe, on election day the people will know for sure who made the mistake.
Contact as many MEPs as you can right now, with a reasoned statement explaining to them why software patents are bad for you and bad for them. You should also remind the MEPs that despite all the spin-doctoring by the software patents' proponents, software patents are not about protecting intellectual property, but about artificially creating an intellectual property interest in typically trivial, individual steps of software development, which relies on and owes all of its progress to gradual innovation, and about assigning this made-up monopoly interest mostly to foreign megacorporations - to the detriment of everyone else. For this reason, however, it is all the more important not to allow the EPO to grant software patents in the first place, for if thoughts are turned into intellectual property and then people realise that this has been a mistake, there is no cheap and easy fix by simply repealing the law (technically, a software patents directive and its implementations), as this means to disown those who have been granted an unjust proprietary ownership of ideas - i.e. those who received such undeserved gifts will cry for compensation as then what they hold title to has to be taken away from them.