__/ [ Mark Kent ] on Friday 06 October 2006 08:24 \__
> begin oe_protect.scr
> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> EU gives grudging nod to patent agreement
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>| Critics say the agreement would take patent issues out of the hands of
>>| the democratically elected European Parliament and would make software
>>| patents strongly enforceable in Europe. Such criticisms led the EP to
>>| scrap a proposed patent directive last year, despite strong backing
>>| from the European Commission and large multinationals such as IBM and
>>| Microsoft. More or less the same groups are now backing and opposing
>>| the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA), according to
>>| industry observers.
>>|
>>| [...]
>>|
>>| He (Florian Mueller) said the resolution should serve as "a wake-up
>>| call" that software patents are far from a dead issue in the EU. "The EP
>>| is now going to say Maybe, but... instead of No to a proposal that,
>>| among other things, would make software patents strongly enforceable
>>| in Europe," he wrote.
>>|
>>| Software patents have been at the root of several high-profile,
>>| disruptive court cases in recent months, including lawsuits against RIM
>>| and Microsoft. In general, however, they are used by large companies to
>>| compel smaller companies to pay licensing fees, ensuring that the
>>| barriers to competition remain high.
>> `----
>>
>> http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=54439956&rid=-50
>
> These organisations are not going to give up their market entry barriers
> easily, are they? It would be good to see competition seen as a good
> thing, not a bad thing. The US does seem to lead the way in trying to
> prevent competition.
Nation-wide competition or /global/ one? Therein lies the issue. Wealth in
the world is a zero-sum game.
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | "I blame God for making me an atheist"
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU is Not UNIX | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
roy pts/7 Thu Oct 5 03:31 - 03:33 (00:01)
http://iuron.com - proposing a non-profit search engine
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