EU Software Patent Directive Getting Hot

zoobab writes "Next wednesday, on the 6th July, the European Parliament will have the last chance to prevent US-style software patents in the EU. If the Parliament fails to reach 367 votes for the key amendments, then the Council directive will legalize business methods and software patents. Yesterday, many political groups have tabled amendments to patch the Council text. A demonstration online is running with currently 2400 websites shutting down until the vote. A physical demonstration is also planned in Strasbourg on next tuesday the 5th of July."

Comments

Re:Oh no

[Anonymous Coward]

We've already got copyrights to do that! All that this law does it make it easier for big corporations to monopolize the software market.

Ooh that smell...what's that smell? It's BULLSHIT.

[Rod Beauvex]

It will only be "final" if it goes through and software patents become legal.

If software patents don't become legal, mark my words, it will just keep coming up until they do.

Re:Ooh that smell...what's that smell? It's BULLSH

[Richie1984]

That's pretty obvious. There are so many large and powerful companies who want this pushed through that they will keep on and on and on at Europe to enforce software patents. That doesn't mean we should just sit back and let them. There are contact details already in this slashdot discussion, and there are protest sites out there. We don't have to sit back and let it happen.

Big business wants to force this through? They'll soon find they have a fight on their hands each and every single time they try it.

Re:Oh no

[NickFortune]

And is there some reason why you feel that copyright is insufficient to this end? It seems to have worked for Microsoft.

Perhaps you might define for us what you consider to be "real discoveries and innovations". Remember, the topic here is software patents.

And if you do feel shoftware should be patented, please explain why it deserves this double protection, apart from the ability it grants multinational software concerns to prevent free software authors from distribnuting the the software they own.

Re:thanks to this article

[johnMG]

Not Slashdot though, of course. Lord forbid they practise what they preach, not while there's ad revenue to be made.

Heh. Good point. I'd like to see some big sites shut down. Imagine if Google shut down in protest? That would get some attention. The whole freakin' internet would seize up if Google shut down for a few days.

Emails are a *complete* waste of time now

[Sanity]

I have spoken to many MEPs over the last few weeks, and take it from me that emails are a complete waste of time at this stage. You need to phone them to make any difference.

Re:Oh no

[Mac Degger]

And it's worse than that: patents aren't cheap. Especially in software, where often it's a single developer who implements his own idea (Bittorrent, for a good example), getting a patent is a hassle which costs time and money. And all that for something which you might not have developped yet.

But the best argument against patents is gained by looking at who wants software patents and who doesn't. It's the small guys, where true innovation nearly per definition happens, who are against these patents, for the reasons you've explained. And it's the large corporations who already have lots of money, and whose only innovation is throwing that money at a problem (usually by buying those innovative companies) who want software patents.

So if patents are supposed to foster innovation (their stated aim), and the past decades if not century has shown that they don't do that, the only conclusion is that software patents should not see the light of day.

A call from a programmer matters

[D. J. Keenan]

Some Slashdotter's might be thinking that they are not part of the political elite and that a phone call from themselves to an MEP won't do much good. Not so!

MEPs respect programmers on this issue. If you are an experienced programmer, a polite phone call to your MEP, briefly stating your position and the reasons for it, will be respected and could make a real difference. (For possible reasons to discuss, see other comments to this story.)

If you do call--and I hope you will--the main trick will be to explain things to someone who likely has little knowledge of computers. For example, one MEP told me that the proposed patent legislation is okay because it only pertains to "technical" software. So I then need to explain that all software can be considered technical, in some sense, and so this wouldn't be a restriction at all.

Some corporate lobbyists will say almost anything. Many MEPs are genuinely not understanding the issues because of that.