From arnim@rupp.de  Thu Nov 16 22:05:10 2000
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 23:05:10 +0100
From: arnim rupp arnim@rupp.de
Subject: [Patents] re. consultation and conference

patents-request@liberte.aful.org wrote:

> But I very much doubt whether the delegates will do anything that might
> jeopardise the whole package of reforms just to overturn something that
> has already been agreed by a simple majority.  If someone with the
> opposite view suggested holding the entire conference hostage over one
> issue like this, you'd accuse them of trying to deliberately force the
> issue.  And others on this list would use even stronger language!

the issue is, that this simple majority was a majority of participating
countries. not of weighted votes by the size of the countries or it's
IT-industries. 

if for example .uk, .fr, .de and .it wouldn't want software-patents, i
doubt they will let themselves overrule by liechtenstein, monaco, malta
and luxembourg ( no offense ).




