Yay! The European Parliament has comprehensively buried the Patent Directive. This is most excellent for two reasons:
1) It means software will remain un-patentable across Europe. For the reasons why this is good, please see this page.
2) The Parliament has shown the Commission that the democratically elected Parliament is in charge.
No. 2 may require some further explanation. The European Commission in conjunction with Ireland (which held the presidency at the time) proposed the directive, which was then amended by the Parliament to specifically exclude software patents. The (unelected) Commission then ignored the Parliament's amendments and amended the directive in such a way as to make the legislation closer to unlimited patentability.
At least the Parliament had the balls to not take any crap from the Commission, and chuck this out.
1) It means software will remain un-patentable across Europe. For the reasons why this is good, please see this page.
2) The Parliament has shown the Commission that the democratically elected Parliament is in charge.
No. 2 may require some further explanation. The European Commission in conjunction with Ireland (which held the presidency at the time) proposed the directive, which was then amended by the Parliament to specifically exclude software patents. The (unelected) Commission then ignored the Parliament's amendments and amended the directive in such a way as to make the legislation closer to unlimited patentability.
At least the Parliament had the balls to not take any crap from the Commission, and chuck this out.
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