European Council Approves Software Patents

A. S. Bradbury writes "ZDNet reports that the EU Council has voted to pass changes to European patent law that will allow the patentability of software. See the FFII for more coverage. Currently, the FFII states 'The Irish Presidency's proposal was passed, with support from Germany, France and most of the other countries whose ministers had publicly promised to oppose or at least abstain. The only no vote came from Spain (to be confirmed), Italy and a few others abstained.' As you may remember, Germany had previously promised to vote against software patents. The FFII news page seems to have been showing growing support in European countries for the FFII and other organisations fighting against software patents, but unfortunately that wasn't enough. So, what now? The European elections are approaching, which means MEPs might be more willing to listen to our views than normal. Slashdot has covered software patents in Europe before."

Comments

I say we boycott...

[Chris_Stankowitz]

We should boycott software from Feb. 31st to the Ides of march! if we don't use any software for that day, the EU will......

What the hell am I talking about?

So where do I apply...

[Fallen Kell]

Ok, now that software is patentable, where do I apply for a process which decodes digital content which has been encoded in MPEG2 standard? And while we are at it, what about a process that converts 3 numbers which range in values from 0-255, into visible light? Or better still, converts a group of eitht(8) ones(1's) and zeros(0's) into human readable text and numbers?

Finally!

[lacrymology.com]

My patent papers are in for the following ideas that I invented:

1) A method for translating program source code into a machine runnable format.

2) A method for displaying a computer's file system (see earlier patent for details) based on the top of a typical desk.

3) A number system based solely on the numbers 1 and 0.

4) A method for having sex with a computer (you know it'll happen one day... and when it does... I'm rolling in the cash)

-m

Too late

[FunWithHeadlines]

"But with all the thievery of intellectual property, and all the monopolizing tactics of the biggest corporations, maybe this is the protection that the individual/small corporate developers need?"

Too late, I already patented that idea. Pay up!

Thanks to the new patent laws...

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

...we can expect to see the ailing European software industry rise from the ashes like a phoenix and produce software that will rival that of the US where software patents have resulted in the best software in the world.

Er...wait...what am I saying?