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Software Patents Circumvent European Parliament

Posted by Hemos on from the the-joy-of-special-interest-groups dept.

Tom writes "Despite the european parliament's vote to exclude software patents, the patent lobby is pressing forward and patentability of software is on the agenda of a workgroup whose advise the european council will likely follow. The european council is at odds with the parliament concerning their stance on software patents. The patent lobby is facing a narrow loss in the parliament, which has voted against software patents, but now circumvents democracy by convincing the council. If they succeed, software patents could be coming to Europe before christmas." <update> The links above seem to have stopped working for me - however, ffii is carrying the news as well.

2 of 378 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Whoever posted this doesn't understand the EU.. by Anspen · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't you hate it when you correct a mistake with a mistake? :)

    Actually the only institution that can propose legislation is the European Commission. Both the council and the parliament can amend though.

    What I'm wondering is how they think to get this past parliament. "sneaking" it into the text or not, the subject is one where the EP has co-decision right. Which means it's shouldn't become law until the EP has voted on it

  2. Did what I could... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    ....at least, I hope I did, still open for suggestions.

    I wrote to the people who are supposed to 'represent' me, and asked them how the hell our country (the Netherlands) could be behind this push for Software Patents, when a majority of parliament is against it.
    A couple of months ago saw a petition voted in to have the minister of foreign affairs retract his support for software patents. And now aparently not only are we voting yes, we're also behind pushing the Polish to give up their resistance to these patents?
    Even worse, this minister is from a party which supposedly is the most vocal supporter of the european -democratic- proces, demanding more power to the european parliament, and less to the council. (Great way to show it guys, now I know why I voted for you :( )

    So a call to all dutch Slashdotters, write an email to your representatives. Not much time left to act.

    CDA:
    cda.publieksvoorlichting@tweedekamer.nl
    P vdA:
    voorlichting@pvda.nl
    VVD:
    Vragen stellen aan tweede kamerleden
    D66:
    http://www.d66.nl/contact

    (not a complete list, I know)