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EU Patents Won't Stay Dead
sconeu writes "Apparently the EC is ignoring the restart directive, and has placed software patents as an A-Item on the Council of Minister's agenda with an aim for approval on Monday." From the article: "The directive is pitched as offering greater protection for software developers. Opponents, including many in the European parliament, fear it will simply provide big players, including America's powerful and litigious software giants, with a very large stick to batter upstart developers and the Open Source movement." Update: 03/04 22:04 GMT by Z : And just as quick as you please Denmark stops things in their tracks. Denmark's objection means that there will have to be further debate before the patents get the stamp.
The EC has always been partial to corporations, establishing fascist government control, and things of that order.
That's what you have a large body with a lot of power that was not elected by the populace: abuse. Particularly when the people involved are incompetent politicians that were given the post so as to "get rid of them" by their political friends.
It's sickening how they and overreach their boundries and dictate to people that don't want their say. It's doubly sickening how their word is the final word in the EU. Bloody pathetic how so many people had their (albeit limited) democracies ripped away from them.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Great. Unfortunately the commissioner from the UK is Peter Mandelson. Twice sacked from his own government for corruption, he is seemingly impossible to get rid of. I don't know anything about his fellow commissioners; is it safe to assume that they are all held to the same standards of honesty and integrity by whatever body oversees appointments to the European Commission?