Una direttiva europea minaccia l'open source (Repubblica) [LWN.net]

La Repubblica reports (in Italian) that some members of the Italian government are opposed to the introduction of software patents in Europe. "'An excessive reliance on software patents risks putting small and medium enterprises in this sector at a disadvantage, limiting the development of the market.' With these words, the Minister for Innovation and Technology, Lucio Stanca, expressed himself today against the proposed software patent directive..." (Editor's translation. The headline reads "A European directive threatens open source.") Sig. Stanca will not be representing Italy when the directive is discussed, however, so it is unclear what the country's position will ultimately be.

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Who will represent Italy in the European Parliament

Posted May 17, 2004 14:24 UTC (Mon) by alessandro.russo (guest, #6471) [Link]

Stanca is the italian minister for Innovation and Technologies, and
has no formal role in the European Parliament. The italian position
will be represented by Buttiglione, Marzano e Moratti who also are
italian ministers in the same political party (more or less) of Stanca,
so (hopefully) they will share Stanca's ideas.

The article ends with an interesting analysis of Ireland as a
"heaven for software patents".

Let's hope for the best.

Ale

Una direttiva europea minaccia l'open source (Repubblica)

Posted May 17, 2004 14:25 UTC (Mon) by fx (guest, #12077) [Link]

It was announced on friday the Belgian government would vote against patents as well. I received an e-mail from Fientje Moerman (Belgian minister for Economics) saying (translated):

"We'll vote against. On top of that we believe the European Parliament (EP) can not be ignored in this matter because the EP has full authority as a co-legislator (co-decision)."

So, the point of view of the Belgian government seems to be that the Council simply can not decide anything on patent legislation unless the EP agrees to it.

Una direttiva europea minaccia l'open source (Repubblica)

Posted May 17, 2004 14:32 UTC (Mon) by bbencic (guest, #9213) [Link]

Fx, You are a lucky guy because I have also written to Fientje Moerman but she did not reply to me ... SNIF SNIF.

Anyway, this is a good news for us.

But we need more countries to vote against the text proposed by the Irish presidency.

Una direttiva europea minaccia l'open source (Repubblica)

Posted May 17, 2004 19:46 UTC (Mon) by lacostej (guest, #2760) [Link]

Would be nice to have France against. They have a good share of vote rights.
I am unfortunately away from Europe, and I cannot call people there to push in that direction...