Major Blow to Opponents of Software Patents in EU

Sanity writes "According to a FFII report, and a Financial Times article, proponents of software patents have just won a significant victory against smaller software companies and open source software proponents as the EU's legal affairs committee rejected most of the effective amendments that were proposed to the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive, which is widely perceived to usher-in U.S.-style software patents in the EU. All is not yet lost as the rejected amendments can be re-tabled when the entire European Parliament has the opportunity to vote next month. If you value the freedom to code without worrying about getting sued, and you live in the EU, now is the time to take effective action." And JasonFleischer writes "Richard Stallman has a piece in The Guardian which does a nice job of explaining the problems with the EU patent directive that will be voted on next month (and for that matter software patents in general), using literary examples."

Comments

Re:A constant battle

[QuantumG]

If the EU adopts software patents (and I guarantee they will -- it's only a matter of time and money), there will be precious few places left in the world where one is truly free to write software.

Just to get this straight, you think that those of us in Australia and the Unitied States are not free to write software? Couldn't it be possible, just possible, that you're exadurating because you're afraid that software patents will upset the status quo? Isn't it possible that you, like most every human being on this planet, are afraid of change?

This is the only way

[suezz]

microsoft can beat Linux - is by outlawing/sueing it. They can't beat it technically because they can't program worth a shit. All they can do now is politic and shove their crap software down people's throat.

Microsoft sucks - fsck off bill and steve and tell George W hello when you guys go over to the ranch next time.