Europeans Still Battling Software Patents

Posted by michael on Saturday October 18, 2003 @08:37AM from the long-haul dept.

rimberg writes "The FFII in the UK is issuing an alert for all supporters to write to their MPs -- this weekend . In September the European Parliament voted for strong restrictions on software patents. But these could be set aside at a meeting of the EU's Competitiveness Council of Ministers on 10 November. The ministers' meeting is to be "prepared" at a meeting of senior patent officials from across Europe even sooner: this Thursday 23 October. Unless they can be convinced otherwise before 10 November, it is believed that UK ministers will push for the Council to adopt a November 2002 draft text, which is even worse than the infamous McCarthy report. The European Parliament's rules for second reading make it very difficult for MEPs to fix a bad text from the Council. The FFII says it desperately need a lot of letters to go out to MPs this weekend to tell the Government how bad the November 2002 draft is. More information at FFII-UK."

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A nice change of pace... by Gandhian_Rage · 2003-10-18 09:00 · Score: 2, Funny

I'm sure we have all grown tired of hearing snobby UKians touting their political stablitiy with phrases like, "Geez, I'm glad I don't live in the US." Well, I'm glad I can finally say that I'm glad I don't live in the UK.