LWN: Comments on "FFII: EU Ambassadors vote to back Software Patents"

EU and Democracy

XERC — 2004-05-11T22:55:58+00:00

Fair enough. Put together two sides:
side 1: Parliament
side 2: Council

Now, theh two sides have to do something and each of them has it's own,
subjective, opinion and motives. Would the discussion be fair, if one side,
let's say, the Parliament, has to ask the other side, what to do about it, but the other side, let's say, the Council, does not have to ask the Parliament anything to do take action regarding to the given issue?

EU and Democracy

Felix.Braun — 2004-05-10T10:47:29+00:00

governments have almost nothing to do with it, since the dicision will be taken by a council of ministers at the given field

I'm sorry but this statement makes no sense. The Council of Ministers -- as it's name implies -- is composed of the member State's competent ministers. Hence, the Council represents national governments which are all democratically elected and subject to democratic review by their national parliaments.

Of course, it is true that representatives of the executive branch of government usually don't have that much of a say in the legislative process. This is why it is said that the EU has a deficiency of democracy. The democratic scrutiny is weakend by one more level of indirection.

However, this does not apply to the present case, where the Council of Ministers and the EU Pariliament have to co-operate in the legislative process. Even if the -- democratically elected -- ministers should vote to back software patentability, the EU Parliament would get another chance to oppose this bill in it's second reading, albeit with stricter requirements of majority.

Government is an instrument of the community?

angdraug — 2004-05-10T08:22:52+00:00

Oh come on, do you really believe this? Look around you and point at a single example of where community wouldn't be better off without government. Government is a parasite, not even a symbiont.

P.S. Sorry, couldn't resist. Spring, and all...

U'm from the EU(Estonia) and AFIK...

XERC — 2004-05-09T22:30:09+00:00

I apologize for the terrible spelling mistakes. Generally I tend to spellcheck my texts a little more. I just wrote it in a hurry.

U'm from the EU(Estonia) and AFIK...

XERC — 2004-05-09T18:15:02+00:00

..the main problem of the EU is the lack of democracy. AFIK
the governments have almost nothing to do with it, since the dicision
will be taken by a council of ministers at the given field and
at this case, the council of ministers are basically an ordinary,
nontechnical, noncaring, locally unrelevant group of clearks,
who don't understand the issues, that are related to software patents
and who have a mentality of thinking: "well, let's ask the patent
lawyers, after all, they are the experts at that given field".

So the ministers just take what's feed to them, without having even a glue, what's going on.
Naturally, that issue could be solved by a prime minister or a
pressure from a local parliament, but as the topic is just TOO TECHNICAL
FOR THOSE ORDINARY OFFICE CLERKS, none of the other politicians care.

There will always
be people, who like to turn some situation to account, so the root of the problem is:
THE LACK OF DEMOCRACY in EU.

Since I'm not in the EU, I have to ask...

ecureuil — 2004-05-08T12:33:57+00:00

This council represents the European national governements which are
elected.

If the commission and the council rejects the law voted by the European
Parliament there will propose a new text in second reading to the
Parliament and there is a compromise mechanism to try to find a middle
ground between the Commission position and the Parliament position.

It won't happen before June when Europeans elect a new Parliament. They
will certainly be a huge increase in the next Parliament of populist
anti-european parties. What will be their position on Patent law ? My
guess, is that it is a much too complex problem for their little closed
minds. The Commission is also going to fall at one point or another as
Romano Prodi looks more and more interested to run for office in Italy.

What will be the next steps for the Software Patent directive ? It can be
buried and left to the next commisison if it seems that there is not
enough consensus or the commission
could try to push it through a new untested Parliament hoping that they
will undo what the precedent Parliament did.

Shall they learn the hard way?

joshk — 2004-05-08T07:22:45+00:00

Perhaps governments do not want to stop projecting the image that they are omniscient and Always Know What's Best for you.

Case in point: Jack Valenti.

Since I'm not in the EU, I have to ask...

flewellyn — 2004-05-08T04:48:10+00:00

Why does the EU even have a parliament, if the actions of that parliament can be overruled at the whim of an unelected council that is not directly accountable to the people of Europe? This hardly strikes me as a progressive or democratic arrangement. Perhaps the EU itself needs reform, not just its patent policies?

FFII: EU Ambassadors vote to back Software Patents

dbharris — 2004-05-08T02:14:15+00:00

Anybody know about Canada's patent laws? (Sadly, despite the fact that I'm Canadian, I have no idea myself.) Canada tends to be more "European" than the United States, so it's possible the patent laws are decent.

FFII: EU Ambassadors vote to back Software Patents

bbencic — 2004-05-07T18:31:37+00:00

The problem is that if the "bad" directive is voted, all european countries
will suffer from the situation. This means if I want to leave Belgium because of this, I have to leave Europe ... but to go where ?

FFII: EU Ambassadors vote to back Software Patents

lacostej — 2004-05-07T16:49:05+00:00

Which country has a good balance between democracy and software patent unfriendlyness?

I would think twice staying in the country I am currently in, if there are better place to live in.

Shall they learn the hard way?

ballombe — 2004-05-07T16:09:42+00:00

No, government will not suffer more than the community, for government
is an instrument of the community.

What that really mean is that the society will change to accommodate for that decision,
for the worse.

Shall they learn the hard way?

libra — 2004-05-07T14:56:52+00:00

There has been attempt to explain why it is a mistake to go for patents in the field of computers. Now if they do not get the clues and do not understand why it is bad they deserve to learn it the hard way.

That is they deserve the chaos and damages to innovation that will result of such a choice. Of course it will damage us not to be able to innovate as we would like, but I think the governments will suffer more from that choice than the community.

So sad they do seem to be going for such a mistake to learn.