Slashdot Mirror
EU Software Patent Law Moves Forward
Zygfryd writes "Just when we were all celebrating, the Polish Press Agency (PAP) reports that the Patent Directive is not likely to return to the first reading as the Commission may ignore the Parliament's vote on restarting the process. Revisions are said to be still possible, but under political pressure the Polish government stated they would no longer oppose the directive's adoption and support the former agreement made in May. Polish diplomats will, however, support any opposition initiated by other countries on the February 17 meeting." At the same time, drseuk writes "The Spanish Senate has just voted against Software Patents. This should hopefully require the Spanish EU representative to vote against any attempts by the Council of Ministers to ignore the will of the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee."
So what point is the Parliament if it doesn't even have the capability to influence procedural issues within the EU superstructure?
Though I am afraid I don't know as much about how all of this works as I should, it seems this entire mess ought to be a real wake-up call to the people of Europe that they have given too much power too quickly to an entity without enough democratic safeguards. Either the EUs power needs to be scaled back, or the democratic influence needs to be expanded to give the EU responsibilities to the people in proportion to the powers it holds. Unfortunately I fear that this is an issue that the average person will not understand well enough to realize the significance of what has happened.
Hey, Europe, do you want to be a significant software player, or do you want America to have the ability to artificially lock you out of the market? Because the ONLY people who benefit from this patent directive in ANY way, and the only people who are promoting it, are American companies... and they are NOT promoting it for YOUR benefit.
The EU system has been shown to be such that American companies can engineer and pass EU-wide legislation for their own benefit and there is apparently nothing either you, or your elected local governments, can do to stop it.
Exactly how does the EU work? If the executive body can simply ignore the parliment, why does the parliment even exist? Who exactly are the ministers accountable to?
The current EU system looks geared towards creating corporate legislation. My observations are based, though, on only the tiny press the EU government gets in the US, and seen largely through the prism of this ongoing EU patent debate. Please correct me where I'm wrong.
Every time the EU government demonstrates that it rejects patent law, it springs up again immediately. Why not? Just a cost of doing business, until it finally passes. Meanwhile, people without a profit motive get "opposition fatigue" - some of the outrage at first being confronted with these artificial monopolies goes away merely with repeated contact, though the opposition remains. Something like a "three strikes and you're out" rule for laws, where a policy repeatedly fails in its process, should be applied. At least such failed policies attempts should produce a new policy statement, to the effect that no such policy is in effect, despite much deliberation. To be considered the next time such a policy is attempted.
And how can it be possible that the Spanish EU rep can misrepresent the Spanish Senate decision for Spain? Or that Dutch traitor last year? That sounds like sedition to me. What's the power hierarchy here? The parliament exerts its power, merely to suggest something to an unelected bureaucrat, who's unaccountable when ignoring it? The whole contraption is completely geared in favor of corporate gaming, and against any sensible representation of the people.
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make install -not war
"apparently nothing either you, or your elected local governments, can do to stop it."
Actually, the problem is that you, your elected local goverments, et. al. could stop this if you wanted to badly enough to actually try, instead of just moaning about it.
Those who want software patents are taking positive steps ( $$$ ? ).
What are YOU doing?
There is not nearly enough love in the world, but there is far too much trust.
Because there is another country's government who are really exerting political pressure. Guess who put the pressure on the UK and Holland to back this?
Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
[This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
With all these forces driving for software patents, its the first time in my life that I truly understand what motivation lies behind terrorists. :-(
Just imagine the situation that a governement is doing something you are convinced is terribly wrong, and you cant find a way to change their mind, you might not have any other choice than using violence. I'm certainly not saying violence is good, don't get me wrong with that, but these days it seems more and more an alternative. I expected such things to happen in, I don't know, Arabia (seems like i'm a little influenced by propaganda as well) or something like that, but even in Europe... I'm truly losing my belief in the world
Well, is there a state in the EU that even directly elects its "head of state" (typically "prime minister")?. Even that setup might be "representative", if the Commisars and Councilmembers were required to represent the parliaments of the states that send them. As is, they're like ambassadors who don't get recalled when they work their own, contrary agenda.
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make install -not war
Originally the commission called the shots and Parliament just monitored them.
Then the commission grew too strong and the countries objected, so a co-decision process was created to bring more democracy into the EU.
The Parliament and Commission are supposed to agree a compromise under the co-decision process.
The Council of ministers can bypass this (which they did thanks to Brinkhorst telling porkies).
JURI has concluded that Commission are misleading Parliament and the wording they want DOES make software patentable. Commission still claims it does not.
Commissions response to Parliaments request to restart in a more honest transparent way seems to be a diplomatic "FUCK YOU".
Its no longer about patents its about accountability, democracy and the Commission walking all over the co-decision process.
If the Commission can walk all over the Parliament like this then the Parliament has to be strengthened. It is the only democractic part of the EU.
Worst than EU approve this nightmare is all development countries that will gonna be pressure to accept this. And for 'development countries' you can understand India, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, all East Europe, Russia, etc... It gonna be a really f*cking nightmare.
It is dead end. Everyone knew that it will happen, for years knew. But all the time we have heard that "no system is working better than this and we should stick that way". Well, it worked for me somehow...to survive. But not to live. I somehow can't live in such ruthless world, as biggest part of people just try ignore it. I can't.
:)
Capitalism and free market can be done only in theory - when people are mostly driven by money. Hoverer, I have my own theory on this. Most big coorporations are not driven by money, but by people with low self-esteem who wants power by any cost. If they have been motivated by money, they have already stop all this after first, second milion. But no...
I guess that is where it has a big problem - our society tends to forget what human being really is - it is NOT ONLY an animal driven by his basic needs, but complex intelligence creature which needs are much more difficult to deal with.
This creature needs attention, care, peace, and yes...that stupid little thing love.
Personally I think behind each crime against humanity, each greedy, stupid demonstration of power like this is one, small tortured soul which has lost it's way to love.
Ok, it was outright sentimental, but it is what I think about it
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Free peoples, be mindful of this maxim: "Liberty may be gained, but can never be recovered." --Rousseau, Book II, chapter 8, "The Social Contract"
He, also seems to be the one influencing our good friend, Dubya.
Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
[This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
So those who would eliminate software patents, thinking they are striking a blow against the Microsofts of the world, might actually be favoring the Microsofts of the world.
This is true. Microsoft and similar companies only lobby for software patents out of altruism. They are desperately trying to help small companies against themselves. Really.
Unfortunately there is a conspiracy amongst economists to deny the benefits to small businesses. *Boo* *boo* the evil economists. Fortunately the good and just patent lawyers come to the small companies' defense *hurray* for the patent lawyers. They too are acting out of altruism and not lining their own pockets. Really.
If by "quite often" you actually mean "almost never" then I 100% agree with you.
Sorry, but as a patent lawyer I can confirm that, as my learned colleague says, quite often the person to benefit from software patents is an individual. The individuals are invariably patent lawyers but that's hardly the point.
What you have to understand is that the EU is not a government, a political institute that tries to balance the regulations in a country between freedom, justice, economic growth, and equal opportunities for people.
The EU is an ECONOMIC union. This has been deeply embedded within its history. The EU only focuses on international industry and economy, and it is completely indifferent to what happens to people and small companies.
As such, it pushes globalisation, it makes laws that enable multinational companies to do business in whatever country the like, and push out local initiative. All in the name of increased profit for the multinational company, and all without regard to the citizen.
There are many, many examples of this. The software patent stuff is just one of them, that may be the most visible on slashdot.
But some of the participating countries had very well functioning government-initiated utilities (railroads, telcos, electricity companies, etc etc) that all had to be commercialized and opened "mandated by the EU" and in many cases it wasn't an improvement for the citizen. Of course the commercial companies and their shareholders profited, but the man on the street had to pay, and often lost a well-operating and simple system to a "freedom of choice" he did not ask for.
(I really don't want "freedom to choose an electricity provider", what I want is a reliable service for a good price and no need to worry about what company is best).
Another example is the over-regulation of many activities and products, causing the costs for small companies to go way up and driving them out of business, again giving in to the large companies.
This year there will be referenda about new European laws, and without even knowing what these are about a large majority of the people has already stated they will vote against it.
Maybe the laws are good, but most citizens just have had it with EU. Only the local politicians still are talking in favour of it (of course again with "it is good for the economy" talk)
What we need is scaling down, localizing activities, re-forming of communities and care about your fellow people, not globalization and multinational companies.
Sir, with all due respect, you know nothing whatsoever about the software industry.
It used to be that you could start up a software company on your own. This is no longer the case. Nowadays, you need access to vast amounts of cash; not just for growing the company, but also to be able to pay the lawyers for defense from frivolous lawsuits. Or to pay off the companies which are threatening you with such a bogus patent lawsuit.
This is now becoming big business. One recently announced legal firm has not only made a new business model out of these blackmail tactics, but gotten the likes of Microsoft, Google and other big names to invest in this scheme.
In short, the small guy is now shut out of the market; they can't play anymore. Guess what this does for innovation, when the big guys have no incentive to innovate?
The ONLY recourse that one has is to create your technology as Open Source. And with Microsoft gearing up for the next big battle against Open Source via Patents, it is questionable how long this defense can stand.
You,obviously, have never worked in the software field and never worked for small s/w companies to whom spending US$5k-10k per patent would be difficult to justify.
You,obviously, have not read the vast amount of literature on the Web which simply shows that s/w patents are very anti-innovation.
You, obviously, are completely unaware of the fact that small and medium-sized companies do not have the time, money or resources to check that every two or three lines of code may not be infringing on a patent. Go see the MIT Web site for an example of a three line program that infringes.
Did he inhale?
The US and EU are geographical areas, so I can't insult it, but I know what you mean. However, the insult (if it is that) stands.
You may not like to believe this, but in the Real World, all the other countries are trying to kiss the arse of the gov. of the US of A (who after all have all the nukes and WMD, and have shown they aren't afraid to use them).
Some Europeans have, yes, made meagre efforts to question the way in which the US is going around bombing and taking over other countries; but, in practice, over little things like patent law, they'll most definitely do what ever the US tells them and the pressure from that side of the pond (esp. GWB and Bill Gates) on this issue has been well documented by the press and the FFII. The €C have said that this is all about harminisation (with the US); they don't deny this is why the directive was proposed.
Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
[This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
And how can it be possible that the Spanish EU rep can misrepresent the Spanish Senate decision for Spain?
Well, the decision was arrived at only this week. Nevertheless, the Spanish representative was the only one that voted against the Council's proposal last May. Abstention counted as votes against, but Spain was the only country that voted no. So rather than misrepresent the decision, the Spanish rep foreshadowed it.
If anything, the Spanish representatives in the EU have done as much as the Polish ones for the fight against software patents.
In any case, the Senate's decision is not such, but only a recommendation to the Government. The Spanish Senate has no decision powers, but is a merely consultive body in this matter. It is more a case of all political groups (unanimous vote!) standing for the public good and reminding the Executive of their duty towards their constituents.
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