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FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
| From: | PILCH Hartmut <phm-AT-a2e.de> | |
| To: | news-AT-ffii.org | |
| Subject: | [ffii] Council Presidency "Adopts" Software Patent Agreement | |
| Date: | 07 Mar 2005 12:02:33 +0100 |
Council Presidency "Adopts" Software Patent Agreement 7 March 2005 -- The Council Presidency today declared the software agreement of 18 May 2004 to have been adopted, in violation of the procedural rules and in spite of the evident lack of a qualified majority of member states and the requests of three states to reopen negotiations. Report * Cyprus submitted a written declaration at the start of the Council session * Poland, Denmark, Portugal and others (not specified) asked for a B item (discussion point) * The Luxembourg presidency claimed this was not possible due to procedural reasons, and that this would have undermined the whole process -> it would stay on the list of A-items * Luxembourg then gave a long statement regarding how the EP still gets a chance in second reading, the importance of avoiding legal uncertainty etc. * Denmark said it was disappointed about this, but accepted and submitted a written declaration * Later on, the list of A items was accepted by the Council Conclusion * Luxembourg negated the Council's [1]own Rules of Procedure, which state that a B-item (which is at the same time a request to remove an A item) can only be rejected by the a majority of the Council, and not just by the Presidency. * The objecting countries "forgot" to request removal of the A-item from the agenda. Rule 3.8 would have given any single country the right to have the A-item removed, because the Luxemburg presidency had failed to insert it more than 14 days earlier. It is difficult to believe that they were not aware of this possibility. * This is a very sad day for democracy, and casts a very dark shadow over the European Constitution, which will give the Council even more power. More News Coming up at http://wiki.ffii.org/Cons050307En Please stay tuned! Contact Dieter Van Uytvanck dietvu at ffii org, tel. +31 6 275 879 10 Jonas Maebe, jmaebe at ffii org, tel. +32 485 36 96 45 Hartmut Pilch, phm at ffii org, tel. +49 89 18979927 About FFII -- http://www.ffii.org The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a non-profit association registered in several European countries, which is dedicated to the spread of data processing literacy. FFII supports the development of public information goods based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 500 members, 1,200 companies and 75,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing. _________________________________________________________________ References [1] http://wiki.ffii.org/Cons0412En _______________________________________________ FFII Press Releases. (un)subscribe via http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news, or contact media@ffii.org for more information.
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FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 7, 2005 15:35 UTC (Mon) by cross (subscriber, #13601) [Link]
It's very interesting that this story immediately follows that headlined "No European patent rubber-stamp on Monday" on the front page; a story saying that this wouldn't happen (because Denmark objected). What happened?
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 7, 2005 16:31 UTC (Mon) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]
> What happened?It would appear (to this USian) that "what happened" is what the "forgot"
to object and request the removal of the A item is all about. If you
recall from the earlier article, the Denmark rep was from a minority
government favoring the directive, but had been pressured to reject it by
the majority coalition (Denmark) parliament. Thus, what happened from the
viewpoint of this observer and taking into account the between-the-lines
story, is that a behind-the-scenes agreement was reached such that the
Luxemburg presidency would break a minor rule of procedure to ram it thru,
and the reps from Denmark and Poland and the others that were being
pressured from home would "forget" to object, and would later agree to the
full slate including the controversial item.
However, if we are lucky, this will mobilize parliament to send this to
resounding defeat, the likes of which had never been thought possible
until this point. Given the rules that were bent and broken, and the
evident power struggle between the branches, AND the fact that their
restart request was simply steamrolled right over, if there's ever a
chance to get anything close to a unanimous absolute majority vote on
anything more than a feel-good symbolic vote in the EU Parliament, this
should be it, for the simple reason that even for those normally favoring
software patents, not voting this into the ground at this point will be
tantamount to yielding most of the parliament's power to the other two
branches, making it little more than a rubber stamp formality.
At this point, as I mentioned (and as previously covered here) the EU
Parliament must mount a normally considered unlikely/impossible absolute
majority to change or derail this thing. They can reconsider all the
amendments they originally added, but /only/ those amendments, no others,
and each vote must be at the absolute majority level, or the current
version of that portion of the directive remains in place.
However, again, a number of watchers I've read seem to think that given
the way this came about, absolute defiance of the will of parliament,
there's actually a decent chance -- if ever there /will/ be a chance
in /any/ such case -- to turn this around in parliament. Again, that is
even /more/ so because this has become the test case. If this fails,
there's not likely to be a better chance or even close to this good a
chance for perhaps 20 years or more, if ever, so MPs that would normally
vote for the current version, or simply abstain which has the same effect
at this point, are likely to vote to kill it, keeping at least /some/
semblance of power in their position.
Here's hoping!
Duncan
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 7, 2005 16:07 UTC (Mon) by yodermk (subscriber, #3803) [Link]
Well, it still has to get through Parlament, and given the previous disregard of the EC towards them, they may have good reason to reject this yet. Let's hope.
If indeed it becomes a done deal, what would be the effect on Linux? Obviously it would be Bad for all small software developers, but would it really destroy Linux?
I ask because in the USA, despite all the hysteria, patents have not done much to slow Open Source, just inconvenience it on occasion. Would it be worse in Europe?
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 7, 2005 16:15 UTC (Mon) by kh (subscriber, #19413) [Link]
What's the good of hindering Free software development in the US if it can just shift to Europe? Things may radically change in both places with this legislation.
Effect on Free Software
Posted Mar 7, 2005 16:15 UTC (Mon) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link]
The patent holders have been lying low while they waited for Europe to come around. Had they started enforcing bogus patents earlier, Europeans might have noticed and kept the status quo.
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 7, 2005 17:12 UTC (Mon) by stock (subscriber, #5849) [Link]
This asks for a blatant NO when treated inside EU parliament. NO withouteven lifting the title page to see whats inside that so-called directive.
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 8, 2005 0:36 UTC (Tue) by daniel (subscriber, #3181) [Link]
This asks for a blatant NO when treated inside EU parliament. NO without even lifting the title page to see whats inside that so-called directive.Sure, it deserves it, but it's always better to be informed:
http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/cons0401/tab/index.en.html
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 7, 2005 18:37 UTC (Mon) by libra (guest, #2515) [Link]
I will soon have to vote in France about the EU constitution, I would like to know what would be the best choice to improve the way EU is functionning, voting for or against that constitution?
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 7, 2005 19:31 UTC (Mon) by jayavarman (subscriber, #19600) [Link]
I guess I'll vote against it here in Portugal.
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 7, 2005 21:57 UTC (Mon) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link]
An alternative would be to get the European Parliament to block the measure. I'm sure that there are lots of MEPs that are angry about this issue, and it should be possible to recruit more. If the good guys give up on the EU, the bad guys win.
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 7, 2005 22:44 UTC (Mon) by Los__D (subscriber, #15263) [Link]
100% for the constitution, as the power of the European Parlament gets stronger than before...
I guess this is one of the reasons that the commision wants the directive adopted as quickly as possible...
Reminds me of when the danish government wanted the native population of Thule in Greenland relocated within 3 days after the americans asked if they could build an airbase there...
Their problem was that a new version of the danish constition, which gave citizens of Greenland the same rights as danes, would be effective a few days later...
Does it sound a bit familiar?
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 7, 2005 23:08 UTC (Mon) by jayavarman (subscriber, #19600) [Link]
Actually I'm not really sure yet, I'll try to read the constitution one of these days.
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 8, 2005 0:34 UTC (Tue) by lenov (guest, #15428) [Link]
Good idea my friend. Always a good idea to know a bit about what you are woting for or against. This is why vote is supposedly reversed to grown-up.
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 8, 2005 0:33 UTC (Tue) by lenov (guest, #15428) [Link]
Currently the parliament has very few, if any decisional power. This will change with the constitution. The executive power will be shared between the council (non-elected) and the parliament (elected). Quite an important issue. For instance, in France the population massively voted left-wing at the two latest elections (including EP). But the french delegates at the council are right-wing ...
Therefore, vote yes. This is a question of democraty versus oligarchy. The constitution is maybe not perfect, but it is a first step. A no will be a clear back-up of the oligarchs.
EU constitution
Posted Mar 8, 2005 12:53 UTC (Tue) by pdundas (subscriber, #15203) [Link]
On whether the constitution is a good thing, you could go either way (though it's a bit off topic).On one hand, it increases the power of the democratically elected parliament, which has advantages.
On the other hand, it does not increase overall democratic accountability VERY much, it adds little by way of accountability of EU institutions, and it reinforces the position of the EU which, being much larger and more unwieldy than national governments, is *in general* less responsive to individual voters. It's easier to amend a local law than to change a directive once it's passed, for instance. EU decisions (like US federal ones at times) seem to be governed by horse-trading between factions even more so than national decisions. The constitution also lacks a brief, clear, and enforcable outline of the limits of EU power, and provides poor protection for the rights of the individual. And it's way too long.
By being called a constitution and by its provisions it adds more of the trappings of a state to the Union, which you may or may not thing of as a good thing.
The BBC have an interesting summary.
To relate this to the topic, the constitution would not make it very much easier for the parliament to effectively censure the "executive branch" of the EU if it misbehaved similarly in the future.
Can someone explain how this debacle would have played out under the proposed procedures (assuming the council followed them)?
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 10, 2005 6:49 UTC (Thu) by ekj (subscriber, #1524) [Link]
Voting against.
But in practice it makes no difference anyway, the constitution *will* go into effect, the popular vote in some countries are just meant to rubberstamp it.
In the very unlikely event that some country vote against, they'll move a few commas and put it out for vote again, along with full force propaganda. They'll repeat this as needed. (most likely it won't be needed at all.)
In the countries where people are the most critical it won't be put up for popular vote at all, too risky. Germany for example.
FFII: Council Presidency Adopts Software Patent Agreement
Posted Mar 7, 2005 18:49 UTC (Mon) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523) [Link]
Navisio days in Danmark are counted: now that they have fullfilled there roles as a lobby instrument in Europe, Microsoft can relocate Navisio in the US as they planned to do from the start.
Bendt Bendtsen, you can be proud of you.