AfterDawn: News

EU Parliament rejects software patents

The European Parliament has unanimously rejected the implementation of software patents despite heavy pressure from some of the worlds leading corporate software companies including Microsoft. If the request is approved by the European Commission, the proposal will be sent back to the EU for initial review, effectively restarting the legislative process. Software patents proposals have been met with opposition in the EU from member states and protesters.

Polish representatives twice rejected its adoption, while Spain and the Netherlands have supported a restart. In Brussels on Thursday, hundreds of protesters showed up to try to convince the lawmakers to drop the proposal entirely. Major software companies such as Microsoft make a habit out of filing enormous amounts of software patents in the U.S. to ensure they can keep themselves at the top of the software industry. If the European Commission withdraws the bill, it cannot be reintroduced for two years.



Source:
Betanews

Written by: James Delahunty @ 19 Feb 2005 5:49

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• 5 comments

• daemonzx6

  Way to go, Europe!

  19.2.2005 14:24 #1

• chek16

  Commercially based patent laws stifle innovation. This needs to be made clear to the US corporations driving this 'rights issue' who have benefited from the public domain in ways they are too greedy to see.

  20.2.2005 09:59 #2

• daemonzx6

  Yeah, the US has some major problems understanding things like that, such as their claims that P2P stifles creativity, when many independant artists use P2P to distribute their material.

  20.2.2005 21:54 #3

• bzboarder

  its good to see that EU parliament members cannot be as easily influenced by multi-billion dollar corporations like micro$oft as the US law makers are. hopefully they will continue to keep an elightened view on the subject and not fall pray to multinational coporations.

  21.2.2005 23:55 #4

• malato

  just Hope they'll hold this line for evermore............

  28.2.2005 09:50 #5