RSSEU Parliament Reject Software Patents
By Nate Mook | Published February 18, 2005, 12:20 PM
Despite pressure from high-tech companies such as Microsoft, the European Parliament has unanimously rejected legislation that would allow software to be patented. 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.
The software patent bill has met with objection from the start. Polish representatives twice rejected its adoption, while Spain and the Netherlands have supported a restart. Hundreds of protesters gathered in Brussels Thursday to convince European lawmakers to drop the proposal entirely. If the European Commission withdraws the bill, it cannot be reintroduced for two years.
No software patents! w00 lol (Even if I don't live there) :P
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|I find this whole thing hilarious. Microspud fought Apple for years in court over "look and feel" when they ripped off the Mac OS to develope Windows, now it is biting them in the butt in Europe. Can anyone say "Hoisted On Your Own Petard"?
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|Would you get over it with the revisionist history?
Ever hear of Xerox PARC?
That's where the GUI came from. Apple copied it. MS copied it. Every single GUI dev copied it. It's not as if Apple had any ground for the suit to begin with but that two-bit company has long been sue-happy. You want to bash MS? Fine. At least do it intelligently with valid information instead of coming off like the typical anti-MS rabble whose voices are forever resounding from the peanut gallery.
That being said, I'm glad the EU rejected the concept of software patents.
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|"Would you get over it with the revisionist history?
Ever hear of Xerox PARC?
That's where the GUI came from. Apple copied it. MS copied it. Every single GUI dev copied it. It's not as if Apple had any ground for the suit to begin with but that two-bit company has long been sue-happy. You want to bash MS? Fine. At least do it intelligently with valid information instead of coming off like the typical anti-MS rabble whose voices are forever resounding from the peanut gallery."
I dont recall implying there SHOULD be a patent on the GUI, what I was commenting on (and rather intelligently I might add) was Microspuds propensity to forget it's own history of law suits and power grabs to corner the software market. You of course sound like an appologist for Microspud who is willing to be among the crowd of lemmings who seem to seem to think Microspud can do no wrong. I would rather be in the peanut gallery tyvm.
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|Actually, while I will comment favorably on things I think MS is doing right, I'm certainly not afraid to speak out against things I feel they're doing wrong (DRM comes immediately to mind). Quite obviously, I don't have the venom or bias you obviously direct toward them. I also generally express my points without silly diminutives such as the above ("Microspud"? How juvenile) and the rah-rah mindset so common amongst the chronic MS naysayers. I prefer to be a little more, shall we say, balanced.
Were I actually an apologist for MS I would be decrying the EU position on software patents. I quite obviously am Not. It is of course interesting (but not at all surpsing) that you somehow missed this salient point.
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|to add further FUD to the mix... what happened to the history books that showed that billy goatcheese helped develop IBM OS/2 ? the same billy goatcheese left soon afterwards taking a significant amount of code with him to incorporate in his "winders nt" ? :)
Seems like this billy goatcheese was busy piecemealing a LOT of code from a LOT of different places :)
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|you are mistaken my good man (or woman) :). view other posts made by me, I constanly point out the evils of the great satan :)
how could you even get otherwise from this post? I call him billy goatcheese....
I am aghast with disgust LOL
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|Ummmm... Apple didn't copy it actually - Xerox gave it to them.
As farsighted as Xerox may be *snicker* they saw no real use for a GUI in business.
Funny thing - Xerox machines look pretty much the same now as they did then... only smaller
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|Actually Apple ripped off the look and feel of the Mac OS from Xerox.!! :o)
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|comment deleted
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|They need some new blood.. all of that inbreeding has cost them their minds.
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|How is repelling something as ridiculous as software patents a 'bad thing', to warrant such an ignorant remark?
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|I'm kind of surprised the EU didn't change the bill to read "everyone but Microsoft may patent software."
Joking aside, it's nice to see the EU stay consistent ... even if their policies don't affect me.
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|Ohh, but what they rule as law in EU can affect even us who don't live there. A LOT of the Linux distro's are hosted and also developed there or at least start in EU, and if they ever got this passed it would affect (for a time only, I fell) the way Linux development is going and the way "flavors" are in such production.
Haven't any of you seen those few "flavors" that took all or part of thier sites offline for a while in protect and constantly talk about it? If not check out http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html as one of them.
Also I must say that code is stolen all the time and only if you big can you complain and fued over it. Would be nice to see some of those court costs (that mostly never produce any profit for ether side, but only more press) just directed to a fund to help promote Linux production (and lets not leave BSD out, even though it's on it's own level, completely).
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