Knopper.net Closed because of "Software-Patents"

Hello All,
This looks like serious trouble.
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
The above link will change so for reference here is the Engish
message August 27, 2003.

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Closed because of "Software-Patents"
In the next few days, the European Parliament will decide about the legalisation and adoption of so-called "software patents" in Europe, which are already used by large companies in other countries to put competitors out of business. This can lead to the termination of many software projects such as KNOPPIX, at least within Europe, because the holders of the over 30,000 already granted "software patents" (currently without a legal foundation) can claim exclusive rights and collect license fees for trivial things like "progress bars", "mouseclicks on online order forms", "scrolling within a window" and similar. That way, software developers will have to pay the "software-patentholders" for using these features, even in their own, completely self-developed applications, which can completely stall the development of innovative software for small and medium companies. Apart from this, the expense for patent inquiries and legal assistence is high, for even trying to find out if the self-developed software is possibly violating "software-patents", if you want to continue to market your software. Contrary to real patents, "software-patents" are, in the current draft, monopolization of business ideas and methods, even without any tangible technical implementation.

More about the current major problem at http://swpat.ffii.org/index.en.html

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Best Wishes
paradocs

That's bad news if it goes ahead. Hopefully some of these guys in the EU will see sense and not support any software patents. :?

According to the Wired website, there is an organized protest going on in Europe, with protesters shutting down the front pages of their websites. Apparently, this is a "done deal" and the European parliament is turning a deaf ear to the small and medium sized software developers who would be most adversely affected by the software patent process.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39115913,00.htm

Greetings,
I hope this is not contagious to other parts of the free world!
Best Wishes
paradocs

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Originally Posted by paradocs

I hope this is not contagious to other parts of the free world!

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It is! Or rather: was. In the US and Japan this sort of legislation is in effect since the mid 90's. I don't know about the situation in Canada. The EU-parliament only decided to put this on the agenda after huge pressure from the US.

- Edwin

[quote="Edwin"]

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Originally Posted by paradocs

I don't know about the situation in Canada. The EU-parliament only decided to put this on the agenda after huge pressure from the US.

- Edwin

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Our politicians usually proceed in lock step with the US like the good little lap dogs they are.

Maybe I should put somthing similar up on this site, although only for *.gov.* hosts..

Hello all,
It looks like common sense may prevail --
at least for now:

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In its plenary vote on the 24th of September, the European Parliament approved the proposed directive on "patentability of computer-implemented inventions" with amendments that clearly restate the non-patentability of programming and business logic, and uphold freedom of publication and interoperation.

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Now is the time to ask European politicians to show courage, and world leadership and vote up the directive that the American citizens, government, SMEs and Alan Greenspan wish they had instead of the current mess.

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Best Wishes
paradocs