Congrats Europeans!

Congrats Europeans!

Posted Aug 29, 2003 14:42 UTC (Fri) by wookey (subscriber, #5501)
In reply to: Congrats Europeans! by dbhost
Parent article: EU software patent vote delayed

You are right but it would help a great deal if you could take a little time to explain the problems you are experiencing in the US to some MEPs.

In general MEPs think the US is doing better than us (the EU) at software (IBM, Microsoft, Sun) and jumps to the essentially false conclusion that we must have software Patents here to catch up. The fact that Microsoft's dominance has nothing to do with patents is glossed-over. The increasing complaints coming from the US about the system don't seem to be sinking in yet.

Hard facts from real American developers/business owners about the badness of swpats would be very useful amunition. Who to send such missives to? If you send them to me I'll try to get them sent somewhere useful. The FFII http://swpats.ffii.org/ maintain lists of who to hassle at the EU, and would love any contributions you can make. Sending them to Arlene McArthy is nominally the correct place but I suspect she is not persuadable.

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