how far will they go ?

[jean-luc@halleux.org]

I read several times paragraph (17) of the last version of the project of 
directive. It refers to a "dominant supplier" but this is not my point here. 
It also refers to "a patented technique which is needed for the sole purpose 
of ensuring conversion of the conventions used in two different computer 
systems or networks so as to allow communication and exchange of data content 
between them".

As far as I understand, this means that a "technique" "for the sole purpose 
of" converting a string of bytes into another string of bytes is patentable 
and this "technique" can only consist of a computer with some program.

Doesn't this imply that, according to the Council, a program converting a 
string of bytes into another string of bytes, is not a "program as such" ?

Jean-Luc, trying to understand how far they want to go.