Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Europeans Still Battling Software Patents

Posted by michael on 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."

1 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Ok, I give up... by 3seas · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why does it never seem to stop, this desire to place constraints on consumer choice?

    People get tired of the constraints being placed on them so they create their own, only to then have a persistant effort to take their choice away from them.

    With technology making it easier and easier to create, you'd think the exclusive rights would get shorter and shorter, so as to re-emburse for R&D.