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Dutch EU presidency critical about software patents
The Dutch EU presidency has commissioned a report with very critical remarks about software patents. “The mild regime of IP protection in the past has led to a very innovative and competitive software industry with low entry barriers. A software patent, which serves to protect invention of a non-technical nature, could kill the high innovation […]
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Call for action against software patents
On 24 September 2004, the European Council will probably meet to rubber-stamp the ‘political agreement’ achieved on 18 May 2004 on the highly controversial software patents directive (2002/0047 COM-COD) The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is appealing to the ministers of economical affairs and on national parliaments to undo their previous approval. They […]
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Recommended reading: Open Source
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC put together a rather large chart providing information on the number and type of Open Source (OS) software policies and legislation considered by national, regional or local governments around the world. It looks at whether the policy or legislation mandated the use of OS, […]
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Dutch parliament blocks patent vote
On 1 July 2004 the Dutch Lower House adopted a motion directed at Minister Brinkhorst and State Secretary Van Gennip (Economic Affairs) to withdraw the Dutch vote in support of the Council of Ministers’ text for the Directive on Software Patents. It was quite a surprise the motion was accepted. In a letter to MPs, […]
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Linux-plans Munich threatened by EU software patents
The plans from the city council of Munich, Germany, to migrate all civil servants to open source Linux software, are endangered by the proposed new EU software patents directive. The Greens in Munich have filed 2 motions on 30 July 2004 demanding more research into how the directive affects the project. A cursory search revealed […]
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National parliaments challenge Council on software patents
Since the beginning of July, the European Parliament had two weeks to group up fractions and build coalitions. A new pro-EU Centrist and Liberal group has emerged, which will be the third strongest in the European Parliament after the Conservatives and Social Democrats. Due to all the political power game, there was not much time […]
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Libre Software Meeting 2004 conference report
The LSM conference has become an institution in France and around the globe. It all began in the year 2000 and has now become a well established meeting place for members and friends of the Free Software movement. Between 6-10 July 2004 about 700 persons gathered to discuss the bright future for users of Libre […]
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Bulgarian complaint against Microsoft
Bulgarian members of Parliament and Internet Society Bulgaria have filed a case with the Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission against both Microsoft Bulgaria and Microsoft USA. The members of the Bulgarian Parliament Ivan Ivanov and Stoicho Katsarov and the Internet Society Bulgaria signed a letter to the Competition Protection Commission with four points questioning Microsoft practices […]
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Council adopts bad position on software patents
Tuesday 18 May the Council of the European Union adopted by a qualified majority in its Competitiveness meeting a Common position for the Second Reading of the Software Patent Directive. The text is described by the Foundation for a free Information Infrastructure as ‘the most uncompromisingly pro-patent text yet’. The Common Position, which was agreed […]
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Demonstration against software patents
1.600 protesters followed a call of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) for a demonstration in Brussels on 14 April 2004. The event, a protest against new plans to allow for direct and extensive ‘patentability of computer-implemented inventions’ in the EU, was followed by a one-and-a-half day conference at the European Parliament, co-organised […]
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More delay for IPR Enforcement and SoftPat Directives
The final vote on two of the most controversial information society Directives, the Directive on Software Patents and the Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights has been delayed once more. The IPRE directive was withdrawn last minute from the 9 February plenary agenda of the European Parliament. On 6 February the Council presented […]
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Finnish petition against software patents big success
EDRI-member Electronic Frontier Finland collected 2295 signatures in one week on its online petition against software patents. The petition was presented to the Finnish parliament on 14 November. Ville Oksanen, vice chairman of EFFI, who acted as the head of the delegation comments:”We were received by MPs from every major parliamentary group, which was a […]
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