From sf@fermigier.com  Mon Aug 21 08:39:30 2000
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 10:39:30 +0200
From: Stefane Fermigier sf@fermigier.com
Subject: [Patents] Alan Cox on software patents (Advogato)

http://www.advogato.org/article/151.html

``You might think the US patent situation is a disaster. You might not be aware
the european one is in danger of moving from sanity to being even worse than
the US situation.... Total Patentability is the new EPO buzzword...

Would you like to live in a society where policemen and judges are paid not
according to how many investigations are done, but on how many people are put
in jail ? Probably not. Yet in the USA that is exactly how the patent system
operates.

[...]

It is very important that the existing patent conventions are kept, to protect
both the small businesses and the competitiveness of the European market. 

It is vital that these changes are stopped, and ideally that the EPO is then
brought back tightly under democratic political control. 

And if you think this is a scare story, remember this: the US had to pass a law
exempting surgeons performing surgery from patent violations.''

Side note: the EuroLinux petition now has >33000 signatures. Thanks
to everyone (and sorry if we couldn't reply to every individual email).

	S.

-- 
Stfane Fermigier, Tel: 06 63 04 12 77 (mobile).
<www.portalux.com>: le portail Linux / logiciel libre.
"Amazon: we patent the dot in .com"




