[ILUG] EU Rejects Patent Software Law - For Now

[Bryan O'Donoghue]

Timothy Murphy wrote:
> On Thursday 17 February 2005 19:50, John McCormac wrote:
> 
> 
>>I tend to have a very cynical view of 
>>politicans when it comes to this kind of thing. To me, they all appear 
>>to have been bought and paid for.
> 
> 
> If you mean the members of the EU Commission are corrupt,
> I am quite sure you are wrong.
> In general, the Commission reflect the views of the constituent governments.

Aside from overwhelming evidence to the contrary al-la Martin Cullen's 
magical continuance in government and avoidance of the axe, despite 
incompetence and abuse of position (obvious to anybody with a brain... 
not necessarily provable in court, I accept), then yes, I accept that 
the "Commission" as an entity is not corrupt, sure individual 
politicians like Martin Cullen are like Pavlov's dogs, when given an 
opportunity to be corrupt or abuse power... that doesn't mean that _all_ 
politicans are similar.

Lets face it, in Europe, power rests with national governments.. so 
politicians who find themselves in Europe, probably are a _nicer_ sort, 
since the sharks in their own governmets (like *Minister* Cullen) are 
too busy defrauding the State, to tolerate people of character, who work 
for their countries.... better to rusticate the competiton to Europe, 
with Charlie McCreevy and John Bruton.... there's consultants to be paid 
and Billionaire software magnates to enact law to please.

Our government (well.. the government of Ireland... not my government) 
has a really nasty habit of announcing right wing software policies at 
Microsoft sponsored conferences. It's worth noting that whilst Mary 
Hannafin, Mary Harney and Martin Cullen may be drooling fools, executing 
commandments from on high by Mr Gates, that at least _some_ of our 
European partners, have had the wisdom, to not simply cede the European 
software industry over, to large American corporations, with _massive_ 
stockpile of patent stockpiles.

All people hear is that nice Bill Gates fella, who gave all that money 
away, wants to protect his investments.... what people don't here, is 
the reality of political machine and it's bullying tactics, behind, 
support for pure software patents.

Take Mr Gates' recent threat to make 800 Danish people redundant, unless 
Denmark reversed it's newly acquired position on software patents.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21266

To be quite honest, allowing the likes of Microsoft to Patent "the 
double click" or "comparison of two variables"

//
United States Patent Application  	20040230959

"
IS NOT OPERATOR

Abstract

A system, method and computer-readable medium support the use of a 
single operator that allows a comparison of two variables to determine 
if the two variables point to the same location in memory.
"
//

would be such an obstacle to people like me, who might seek to start an 
independant software firm of some sort... that we (Irish) may as well 
simply outlaw, small indegineous software development firms, because the 
_day_ Microsoft or any other large patent portfolio holder, decided to 
sue you for patent infringement... is the day your company would 
effectively go away.

Really... do I need to pay Bill Gates money, so that the following piece 
of code can work?

#inclulde <stdio.h>
#define ISNOT(x,y) if(x==y) return 1; else return 0;

int main(int argc, char**argv){


	char * blah;
	char * blah_2;

	if(ISNOT(blah,blah2))
		printf("Dissimilar\n");
	else
		printf("Similar\n");

	blah=blah_2;
	if(ISNOT(blah,blah2))
		printf("Dissimilar\n");
	else
		printf("Similar\n");

	return 1;
}

I don't honestly think the government grasps, how prohibitive patents 
have the ability to be... and to the extent that the goverment does 
realise it... makes no difference since, our government is so used to 
doing _anything_ to attract business to Ireland tax breaks, public 
funded infrastructure projects... enacting law to keep corporations 
happy... that the FF/PD government has forgotten what government is 
supposed to be about namely "doing what's best for it's people"... not 
"doing what's best for large corporations... in the hopes that those 
corporations will reward the country by providing jobs".

And it has to be said, that effective lobbying by large_corp_x, is as 
much a source of Ireland's pro patent position, as any desire of our 
governemt to please large_corp_x and thus derive employment from them is.

Furthermore, I don't honestly think that Irish people, would _want_ to 
give any large corporation the ability to have a patent like the 
above... but, since people don't really understand _how_ prohibitive 
patents can be... all they see is Bill gates giving away 750 million 
dollars... not Bill Gates threatening to make people redundant, unless 
Europe does what he says !

So, while the Comission _does_ represent the national governments... it 
_is_ true to say certainly in the case of Ireland, the a combination of 
bribery, lobbying, threats and reflex pro-Big business policy is the 
lynchpin of the pro Patent stance of many governments.

In this regard, as much as I oppose European Federalism, that the 
European Parliment, being an entity similar to a Senate... populated 
with a similar sort of politican _has_ proved itself representative of 
the interests of the European citizen, where _clearly_ the majority of 
National governments, have proved themselves to be acting in the 
interests of American and Japanese and Wannabe-European patent portfolio 
holders.

/rant