-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Personally, I kind of knew this was going to happen.
Democracy winning over money? Ma tarax! Keith Ramon Casha wrote: | 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/ | -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFCLansym3HAdrlsyERAjvgAJ9llt4fv8qEhU1lvM9yxzCa3lvMKQCdFM+R 7CmvTiOz/Fu70knJezpECcQ= =NB/B -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
