-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 There is to be a referendum in Denmark on the Unified Patent Court, which will be a single patent authority for European countries (I believe some non-EU countries participate, while Italy and Spain have declined)
http://www.euractiv.com/eu-elections-2014/danish-government-confirms-eu-re-news-532513 The Danish free software/digital rights community as embodied e.g. in It-Politisk Forening (http://www.itpol.dk, IT-Political Association of Denmark) of which I am a member, is recommending a NO to the UPC. This is because while software patents are (I believe) not allowed in European patents, the European-level courts have adopted a far more permissive stance than our local patent office, which means that accepting the UPC will result in many more software patents being enforceable in Denmark. All political parties support the UPC and favour a YES at the referendum, except the far-right Danish People's Party (DPP) and the left-wing Enhedslisten (EL). Whereas DPP oppose the UPC on grounds of national sovereignty, EL have argued against giving large corporation an uncontrollable (by us in Denmark, or people outside the EU bureacracy) monopoly on ideas to large corporations. Interestingly, they have explicitly mentioned the threat from software patents currently acknowledged on the European level but not by our local system. I've been invited to a meeting next Monday, and I think I will ad the support of our local FSFE group on the "NO" side. The reasoning is, once again: We do not want any software patents, and we believe this unified patents may easily become a means for introducing software patents on the European level. On the other hand, a Danish "NO" might be a good starting for a general campaign for a complete ban on software patents on the European level. I don't think I have links to a good analysis in English, but people might try Google translating this one: http://www.itpol.dk/notater/enhedspatent-og-softwarepatenter-erhvervsudvalg-jan13 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAlLYAiEACgkQletyW1YzdSHFnwCeLeUJoUomwKFOeUYI1XwD8mSF MCsAnj5LbQy2coHOokTi0HCllMxtTWwK =/Gys -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list [email protected] https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
