[Fsf-friends] Patently stupid

[Rakesh 'arky' Ambati]

Hi,

 Patents are back !!!!! 

   Hide if you can, they'll get you. 

<news>
In direct contravention of the recent vote by the
European Parliament to curtail Software Patents, the
Irish Presidency of the European Union has
surreptitiously reinstated unlimited software patent
language into the text of a statement to be adopted by
the European Council of Ministers on Monday, May 17,
without further debate!

The new text, if adopted, will extend Software Patents
to every piece of software, including computer
programs, data structures, and process descriptions.
This will directly harm most software firms and all
Open Source projects unable to pay patent licensing
tribute, and amounts to an appropriation of the public
domain by proprietary interests. A direct beneficiary
will be a new class of pure patent companies without
any real business or contribution to employment, which
will use the threat of litigation to extort payments.
Of note is that a sponsor of the Irish Presidency is
Microsoft, currently building a large patent
portfolio. If the Software Patent text is adopted,
Microsoft may use this patent portfolio against Linux
and other Open Source projects.
</news>

Read More
Software patents back on the horizon after EU leaders
ignore the vote of MEPs:
http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/05/13/1447225.shtml?tid=132&tid=150&tid=82

FYI

--arky 




	
		
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