Compliance Toolkit

Story: Software patent directive rejected

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Excellent and hope restoring news! Thanks to all those who sided on the factual side rather then the (self interested) emotional side. Especially ZDNet Ingrid for her excellent BSA article (keep in mind that I'm rarely in the habit of making compliments) that I'm guessing raised some eyebrowses here and there. And certainly not forgetting all the organisations, like the FFII, and people who have given the extra mile of effort willingly and freely.

That said, I would still like to know who the 81 MEPs are that didn't vote against the software patent directive and why. Because the commercial lobbiests will believe that as long as they are funded for this topic it'll just be a matter of time before they'll reach the objectives they've been hired to fulfill (and they'll be looking for inroads to accomplish that). It's exactly that funding that needs to be killed dead. Along with a very clear message to those that are behind that funding that if they want to change things in the EU they should choose the democratic and 'open to public discussion' way rather then the 'behind the curtains' way or else.

In short, it's not over yet. And the EU still needs to work on their decision making process but I'm more hopefull that they'll accomplish that then I was yesterday.

Next point on the agenda. How to make (and keep on ensuring that) the booting out of software patents works out well for the EU economy and not so well for other economies. Because there will be overseas companies that still will want to make their agenda our agenda. And it is exactly those companies that need to be made perfectly clear that if they want to play on EU grounds they better follow EU rules and guidelines. Or else there's hell to pay.

One thing is for sure. With software patents booted out in the EU various US companies looking to make a difference via innovation (rather then, dare I say, legalised extortion) are well advised to establish R&D businesses and such in the EU if they want to keep up with the rate of innovation (free from the overhead of plenty of legal related hours) generated in the EU from now on. That is, if such US based companies still want to do business in the EU a few years from now because falling behind in innovation speed too much is a sure way to get off of the customer short list in IT land.

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