European Ministers approve software patents, Parliamentary vote still pending...

Jon maddog Hall maddog at li.org
Tue Mar 8 10:49:01 EST 2005


Hi Gang!

tedroche at tedroche.com said:
> If I understand correctly, the "European Council of Ministers" has  approved
> this rule, but it still requires a vote by the European  Parliament before
> become the EU law.

It has been my understanding that this is nothing new.  The ministers have
always been in favor of the patents and the parliment has always been against
it.  This is why I have a european-made T-shirt that says "No Software
Patents - Power to the Parliament!"

Ergo we will have to see what happens if the Parliament holds true and does not
radify it.

By the way....as an illustration of this concept, open your mouth wide as if
you are singing, but have no sounds emerge.  This is what would happen if the
government passed "Music Patents", and everyone started patenting things like
triplets, etc.

I asked an artist today how he would feel if brush-strokes and painting
techniques were patented.  His answer was "I am an artist!  I can not be
bound by artificial rules!"

Hmmmmmm.

md

md
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
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