Euro software patents are DEAD AGAIN!

Cory Doctorow 12:28 am Thu Feb 3, 2005

w00t! Woohoo! The European Software Patents directive is DEAD. AGAIN! The MEPs have rebooted the process, and this time, it's personal.

This isn't dead for good — FFII and the other patentfighters are going to need lots of activist support, right from the start. Get involved today, or tomorrow, Europe will sink into the same quagmire as the US, where math and general purpose algorithms are the exclusive property of a few patent-squatters who produce nothing except lawsuits.

Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (JURI) has decided with a large majority to ask the Commission for a renewed referral of the software patents directive. With only two or three votes against and one abstention, the resolution had overwhelming support from the committee, and all-party backing.

The decision is a powerful statement from MEPs that the current Council text, and the logjam of concern it has caused, is simply not a sustainable way forward. It is now up to the Commission to submit a new, or the same, proposal to the Parliament. Parliament will then hold a new first reading, this time under the guidance of Michel Rocard MEP as rapporteur.

(via ./)

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