Toolkit

Story: Protests derail software patents vote

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My impression is that one of the motivating factors behind this clarification of the patent situation (which is a dubious description of the potential result of this directive, especially if various claims are correct with respect to exemptions) is the supposed need to counter "offshoring" with a big intellectual property "stick" that can supposedly be used to keep those third world countries with all the IT employment in check.

Personally, whether the ambitions to maintain an uneven economic playing field ever become realised or not, I can't help feeling that the winners will be the big, lawyer-heavy corporations, and the losers will be everyone else: whether they live in the third world or not.

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