techMusings

OK, first update. I've had a reply from Mary Honeyball, with a full statement, which has to be said, says exactly what I wanted. Essentially, the European Parliamentary Labour Party reckon:

• We are not in favour of the patenting of software as in the US.
• Europe needs a uniform legal approach to stop the drifting towards extending patentability to inventions, which would not have been traditionally allowed, and to stop patentability of pure business methods, algorithms or mathematical methods.
• Software products as such, must not be patented.
• Opensource software must be allowed to flourish and the Commission must ensure that this Directive does not have any adverse effect on opensource software and small software developers.
• Patents and the threat of litigation must not be used as an anti-competitive weapon to squeeze out small companies.

Apparently the vote is expected to be narrow, so if you care about having a European software industry at all, go chase your MEPs now!