[ILUG] Re: Trivial patents *not the problem*

[Bryan O'Donoghue]

Colm MacCarthaigh wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 21, 2005 at 02:51:13PM +0000, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
> 
>>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.
> 
> 
> Whoa? Do you have *any* idea of the economics involved?
> 
> Here's a reasonably good exaplanation in the economics that make us
> the largest exporter:
> 
> 	http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=397


Hold on Colm.

Have you actually *read* the whole thread for that link ? There is some 
pretty ill informed (facutally) as well as pretty "ignorant" anti-Irish, 
prole feed, repeated verbatim (no doubt) by Florian Mueller, the self 
appointed head of nosoftwarepatents.com.

Florian seems under the impression that Ireland with it's four million 
people, is conspiring to bring patents to Europe's other 490 million 
citizens, where presumably Germany, his own country is _powerless_ to 
resist. I find that link, personally offensive, as an Irish person. I 
find Florian's continued casting of the Irish as a "leech" on the EU, as 
the worst sort of "jingoism" coming from Florian... where it's OK, for 
Germany & France to force a rewrite of the growth and stability pact[1], 
but, it's not OK, for Ireland to have a soverign tax regieme, so we 
(Irish) are all leechs, hell bent on controlling certain, EU, positions, 
so we can act in our own interests.

You've quite recently accused me of being jingoistic, and while I'm 
proud to be Irish, I like to think I'd engage the brain a little more, 
before I'd go pointing my finger at other people, in other countries, 
like Florian has done, while convienently overlooking the shortcomings 
of my _own_ country's position.

The link just posted ? Now _that_is_ most certainly a prime example of 
jingoism... or, to be fair, perhaps just vaugely delusional xenophobia 
and a lack of introspection.

Please, please, please, _please_ don't lend those particularly insulting 
(to the Irish) rants, any validity, by spreading them.

[1] Ireland was penalised under the "old" growth and stability pact, 
before France & Germany scrapped it, to suit themselves !

--
Bryan