[GNUz] Fwd: EU software law....

[Ralph Stoker]

At the risk of offending someone here is a recent BBC report (brief, but sadly 
HTML..hence the cut and paste) on the status of the EU software patent 
progress.

I'll gladly accept any 'how to' on forwarding such relevant (IMHO) news to the 
group in a more 'acceptable' form...couldn't find a web link!

Last Updated: Thursday, 17 February, 2005, 17:23 GMT  
 





EU software patent law faces axe 



 
The software patent bill has been thrown out
 

The European Parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed software 
to be patented. 

Politicians unanimously rejected the bill and now it must go through another 
round of consultation if it is to have a chance of becoming law. 


During consultation the software patents bill could be substantially 
re-drafted or even scrapped. 


The bill was backed by hi-tech firms that said they needed the protections it 
offered to make research worthwhile. 


Patent problems 


Hugo Lueders, European director for public policy at CompTIA, an umbrella 
organization for technology companies, said only when intellectual property 
was adequately protected would European inventors prosper. 


He said the benefits of the bill had been obscured by special interest groups 
which muddied debate over the rights and wrongs of software patents. 


Other proponents of the bill said it was a good compromise that avoided the 
excesses of the American system which allows the patenting of business 
practices as well as software. 


But opponents of the bill said that it could stifle innovation, be abused by 
firms keen to protect existing monopolies and could hamper the growth of the 
open source movement. 


The open source movement, of which Linux is the flagbearer, eschews notions of 
property and instead allows anyone to examine and tinker with the inner 
workings of software. 


The proposed law had a troubled passage through the European parliament. 


Its progress was delayed twice when Polish MEPs rejected plans to adopt it. 


Also earlier this month the influential European Legal Affairs Committee 
(JURI) said the law should be re-drafted after it failed to win the support 
of MEPs. 


To become law both the European Parliament and a qualified majority of EU 
states have to approve of the draft wording of the bill. 


The latest rejection means that now the bill on computer inventions must go 
back to the EU for re-consideration. 

Cheers
Ralph