[Nottingham] Software Patents

[Martin Garton]

On Wed, 2005-07-06 at 13:37 +0100, Michael Leuty wrote:
> Good news, it seems.
> 
> http://lists.ffii.org/pipermail/news/2005-July/000302.html
> 
> "European Parliament says no to software patents"
> 

As I see it, mostly good news but not entirely.

The best case scenario would have been passing the directive with
amendments to support the Rocard line.  This would have clearly outlawed
patents on pure software. The worst case scenario was accepting the
directive in its existing form. Better than nothing was outright
rejection.

This doesn't mean that the parliament support the anti-swpat camp. It
just means that they believed that the directive pleased no-one in its
current form.

We will now have to continue with a situation where software patents are
technically illegal but keep getting granted anyway because of cleverly
worded applications.

Keep your eyes open because the big business pro-patent lobby will not
give up their relentless pursuit for control of the industry.  For
example they are now free to influence individual member states one at a
time which is what some believe they will begin doing.

-- 
Martin.

PS. What kind of response did others get from contacting their MEPs?
With the exception of Mr Bill Newton Dunn (who was prompt with his
replies and actually seemed to listen - even if I don't think he fully
understood my points and he didn't agree with me) they all seemed to
have no interest in what their constituents had to say on the matter.