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

May I be

[ProudClod]

the first to say "Fuck".

I mean, talk about a stab in the back.

Re:May I be

[Frymaster]

I mean, talk about a stab in the back.

and you're surprised because why? contradiction, hypocrisy and breaking promises are the hallmark of liberal, representative democracy.

think of this: the number of domestic votes a country like, say, germany has that would be swayed by an issue like this is very minimal. the amount of potential campaign contributions from major software vendors, contributions that can translate directly to votes, is big. the outcome is obvious.

remember that a liberal democracy is a system whereby the rulers get votes from the poor and money for the rich while promising to protect each from the other.

Re:May I be

[pyros]

so we really need to remove the financial incentives to becoming a politician. NO corporate campaign contributions, and pay the fuckers so little they need a real job to pay the bills. And no pension plan. Maybe then politicians will only consider what's in the best interest of the people.

What do you think?

[Pi_0's don't shower]

Originally, I thought this would be a detrimental thing categorically.

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?

So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Patent laws exist in the US and OSS continues to thrive . . .

Re:So what?

[RAMMS EIN]

So what indeed! So what if OSS continues to thrive:

1. OSS is a prime example of software that can be developed anywhere.

2. One cannot expect to gain as much from suing an OSS project as from suing a corporate software developer.

3. How do you even go about suing an OSS project? Who would be the defendant?

4. The patent wars are only beginning. It can get much worse.

So, the point I am making is that not many OSS projects have been sued _yet_, but that's far from saying it will stay that way.

And besides, a system can be bad even if it does not negatively affect OSS.

As i've just posted in Groklaw minutes ago...

[AlfredoLambda]

'Software' patent proposal aproved with Spain's refusal

Pending a second reading in European Parliament

Brusselles-- EU Competition Council reached a political agreement about the patentability directive of inventions applied in the field of computer science, with span ish representative voting against it who stated the directive lacked enough guarantees to prevent computer programs being patented.

The Irish Presidency and the European Comission introduced amendments to satisfy Belgium, Germany, Italy and other countries refusing the proposal. But Spanish Secretary of State for European Affairs, Alberto Navarro, 'after consulting Madrid' decided to keep his negative vote.

The proposal, which has raised refusal among Free Software advocates, is still pending a second reading in European Parliament

[...]

The Spanish Government considers the advantages of the protection given by patentability are not clearly exposed, as computer programs are already protected by copyright law.

This is Good

[blunte]

Indirectly.

This will hopefully hasten the collapse of the software industry, highlighting exactly why software patents are bad.

The next 10 years could really be a mess, but hopefully people will learn from it.

This is all so typical. There is always someone, somewhere trying to twist the system to squeeze out some self-benefit, but always at the greater cost of society (and ironically, also usually at the long term cost of the selfish people themselves.)

Re:This is Good

[GoofyBoy]

>This will hopefully hasten the collapse of the software industry, highlighting exactly why software patents are bad.

I'm a bit more pestimistic of things. Once things are into law and they need to be fix, things gets more complicated rather than scrapping the whole thing.

For example, personal taxation. Another example, the inconsistances of corporation and individual rights. Another example, international trade laws and tarffs.

Re:This is Good

[Simon Lyngshede]

I hope you're right. I hope some of the big companies will crash and burn so badly because of this.

In 2 or 3 year when no small European software companies are left, I'll bet you pretty much anything that the EU member countries will start crying about how the big US companies are killing inovation and stealing job. Then, I'll laugh some more. God, fucking stupid politicians, they don't know shit about software and should keep away.

Im European by the way, and strongly believed that this crap would never pass. Americans are welcome to point and laugh at me for my ignorance.

Damn...

[HeLLLight]

I really cannot beleive that this is happening. A sstte of denial? No. Just shock at the possibilitys of this draft if it makes it into quote "...'sudden death' reconciliation committee..."

But there does look like there is some hope quote "The catch is that if the Parliament still doesn't like software patents, it has to have a majority of all MEPs to put its amendments, which means that in practice they need a two-to-one or three-to-one majority in the chamber,"

Hopefully this draft gets stopped in the next round of voting. If not, this could be a very bad thing for Europe developers of OSS.

The BBC has a different story

[jonbryce]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3726375.stm

They say that the patent plans have been shelved indefinately. Who is right?

OK, Euro-voters, do your thing

[GrouchoMarx]

When this sort of thing happens in the US, there is a huge cry of "you don't like it, you voted for them. Vote them out." Well, now it's time.

I'm in the US, so I can't do it this time. But to all the Europeans on Slashdot: Your own governments just lied to you about an EXTREMELY important issue. Your own representatives said they would vote against software patents, and then voted for them. Your next move is very simple.

1) Send a letter to the appropriate bureaucrat stating that you are upset, and inform them that they have lost your vote.
2) In the next election, send a letter to their opponent telling them why the incumbent pissed you off (software patent support), along with a check.
3) Vote for the challenger.
4) Watch as a few people wake up and realize that the voting public is not completely stupid and full of sheep.
5) Profit (not in money, but in Freedom).

Your turn now. You take out those bosos while we work against George "Fascist" Bush here on this side of the Atlantic. If you don't, you only encourage our slide into an information dark ages.

sigh.

[flacco]

if there is hope, it lies in the proles.

Choke the system

[Dinglenuts]

File patent after patent until the system dies. This is the only way to kill the beast.

NRA

[totatis]

I am European.

I think we should form an European association, a la NRA, where we promise to all vote against any party pushing for software patents, regardless of all other issues.

We are a lot to oppose software patents, and if we unite and call for vote against all parties supporting software patents, we will be heard. No political party can loose millions of vote in European elections, with their huge absention rates.

If we organize, we are strong enough to stop this outright corruption of "our" officials. I will tomorrow write a letter to my representative, stating him that should he opposes software patents, he'll get my vote, and that should he supports software patents, he'll never get my vote. I will also try to contact any association in my country (France) to see if we can organize some counter-power.

I am ashamed of this shit, I am ashamed of my government, and I am ashamed to be a citizen of such a corrupt system.

I won't leave a world to my children where they can't express mathemacial equations (software is just that) without being sued. I think i've never fell that motivated to engage in political action.

To all you slashdot europeans : do not drop arms. The fight is not over yet, and the incoming elections give us much power. We shall unite and fight. We shall not let software become patentable.

Re:Audio files and transcripts

[ArsenneLupin]

As for myself... as a Dane, I am disappointed in the way my representatives behaved - to see how they were bullied into following the crowd, read the second transcript. Sheesh!

I was surprised by this too. The Irish presidency kept hammering on your poor representative until she got a yes out of them... Bullying is indeed the appropriate word. But then, maybe for the next elections, try to not elect such push-overs ;-)

At least the Italians and the Spanish stood their ground!

Re:Sad

[Doctor7]

VOTE UK Independance on June 10th!

Quite the opposite. We need to hurry up and get Sterling into the Euro. Then the dollar will go through the floor, the American economy will collapse, and maybe the EU will stop modelling its laws on what's 'obviously' working so well for the USA.

Now is the moment

[bryam]

Now, we have to take the action:
1 - Create one OSS/FS patent pool for defensive protection
2 - Enhance Open Source Licenses patent-defensives
3 - Ask/"Open Letter" to *all* companies supporting Open Source movement asking for explicit promise to not use software patents to attack Open Source software. Please, ask to IBM, HP, Oracle, Sun, CA, Veritas, Novell, Fujitsu, Dell, etc.
4 - ...[your ideas here]...

Re:I was part of the Dutch FFII delegation

[16K Ram Pack]

I've been discussing the issue with my MEP, Caroline Jackson, who represents the South West of the UK. She's been very helpful.

If you can tell me where to go to get co-ordinated with you chaps, I'll give you some time.

Applying for patents

[dette_kan_umulig_vae]

I'm not sure how it works when your applying for software patents, but if you're applying for a patent on anything else there are certain rules that must be followed. The idea ( a machine or whatever it maybe) can not have been known to the public, scientists or researchers prior to the application. Therefore the patent office will search news and scientific papers to see if anyone has come up with the idea before. The application must also show an noticeable uppgrade of an old way of doing things or a completely new approach. One can therefore not patent opensource software without braking the rules already set by the patent officials. You must also provide a working prototype or approved technical drawings. This means you cannot patent something that has not yet been invented. -Lars

Which is it..

[Anonymous Coward]

Talking as a Dutch (and thus European) citizen about our dutch politicians and our commisioner Bolkestein:

I can't decide whether it is plain ignorance or willful ignorance on the part of our politicians? Either they are not informed whilst being paid to be, or they are only listening to just one side of the story (and by now we all know which!).

This whilst in the Netherlands it's come into fashion amongst politicians to talk about stimulating the "knowledge economy" (dutch: kenniseconomie). Well this should do just great, kill small (inovative) software firms and just hope that the monopolies will choose to invest in R&D whilst they could just cash in on their monopoly position. These are the same people that sell taking money away from higher education as a impulse to its quality. The same people that want a Harvard/MIT/Yale kind of University (in the Netherlands) whilst providing just a fraction of the funding these receive and trying to politically steer the directions of fundamental scientific research. The next election they will certainly not get my vote!

In the European elections I will again vote and hope that our European Parliament does not get side tracked and ignored again. Futile? I don't know but it's worth a shot. I it can't get any worse (ok it can.. but that's another story altogether and something I cannot change).

This message was brought to you by armchair politics ;)

If I could have pushed this over +5,

[dracvl]

I would have done so.

This is exactly what you need to communicate, that it's easier than you think to influence people in the right position to do something about this mess.

There's also a big point in making things visible and digestible by the general populace. Most people don't know patent law, but use the analogy about patenting the recipe for bread, and they get it pretty quickly.

The FFII people have done an excellent job, but with a clearer message and more planning for the demo etc, they would have had far more impact.

So now's the time to make sure the European Parliament doesn't approve this. Get up, contact the media - radio stations, TV, newspapers - and let your voice be heard.

I'm personally going to do this even if I live in Norway (which is outside of the EU), because the important people here have close ties to people on the inside of the EU parliament.

We have nothing to lose, everything to win. Get up, get out, and spread the message. This cannot continue.

Heads in Ass

[Anonymous Coward]

So when are we going to pull our heads out of our asses and set up a patent fund for opensource projects. Yea yea tell me all you want its wrong and I will tell you that opensource will be patented off the planet. We need to wake up and work with the politics not against them. We dont have enough people or money.