The President of the EU Council of Ministers has decided to disregard
democracy and sell the EU software industry to the highest American
bidder. Going against two decisions taken by the European Parliament
(the EU's only democratically elected body) as well as several national
governments to take the CIID, or "Computer Implemented Inventions
Directive" (software patents) back to the drawing board, and breaking
their own rules of conduct, the Council of Lackeys has simply approved
it without debate. Interestingly, this decision was taken after a
European tour by Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.
In 1999, the European Commission was forced to resign over a corruption
scandal. One wonders whether the Council, another body composed of
unelected "friends of friends", lends itself just as readily to
corruption as the Commission has proved itself to be. The only entities
standing to benefit from the CIID are large mostly-US-based software
corporations. The CIID allows companies to lay claim over vague ideas
and concepts in software, and demand royalties from anyone who, in their
view, had the same idea and cannot afford the legal fees required to
prove otherwise. In the US, where similar laws have been in place for
quite some time, software patents have only been used to prevent
competition and innovation.
See also:
* http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/other/0,39020682,39190515,00.htm
* http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21640
* http://wiki.ffii.org/Cons050307En
* http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=439
* http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/07/ec_says_yes_patents/
--
Ramon Casha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Malta Linux User Group
