Trivial patents *not the problem* (was: Re: [ILUG] Re: ILUG sends s/w patents briefing document to Irish MEPs)

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

"Barry O'Donovan" <mail at barryodonovan.com> writes:
> On Monday 21 March 2005 14:02, Colm MacCarthaigh wrote:
> > we can do without software hobbyists in favour of greater employment
> > (say) ? 

(note: hobbyists might have been the easiest to attack of my four examples,
 but I didn't make any argument based solely or mostly due to hobbyists)

> Are we not the (or at least one of) the biggest software exporters in the
> world?

'fraid not.  Most college IT course prospectives will say we are, but as
a programmer looking for a work I never found the entrance to the secret
underground caves packed with paid programmers.

Ireland's a tax haven, we charge no tax on copyright royalties (or something
like that), so a lot of multinationals (and musicians), set up a base of any
size here and filter their releases though their Irish branch.

-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan,
http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/
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