[NTLUG:Discuss] Software patentability - might kill Linux

[tr_data1]

Wow. I'm totally shocked at the LACK of concern in regards to
the upcoming decision of the European Council to legalize software
patentability in Europe, on Tuesday May _18_.  If approved, it 
"would lead to a situation where big companies with large patent 
portfolios use these to lock their respective markets and prevent
competition from innovative SMEs", ... Isn't this what M$ is up to
right now in the US?

Please try to put aside the Fedora vs Red Hat arguments for a few
minutes and pay attention to what appears to be a very serious 
threat to Linux. I just got an update email from Mandrake that has
the following links. If you want to see the full email from 'em, let
me know.  This affects ALL LINUX, not just Mandrake:

A very readable analysis by François Pellegrini explaining
the legal and economic issues of software patentability:
http://www.abul.org/article191.html

A thorough analysis by Jonas Maebe of the difference between
the three versions of the directive, and why software patents
are indeed illegal with respect to TRIPS:
http://www.elis.ugent.be/~jmaebe/swpat/councilanalysis/paper-en.pdf

Positions of the member countries of the European Union:
http://swpat.ffii.org/akteure/  (add "pt", "ie", "fr",
"de", "be", "gr", etc to have the positions of the
member countries)

The page of the FFII giving some directions for actions:
http://kwiki.ffii.org/?LtrSmePolit0405En

A recent paper published in the Washington Post describing the
current situation in the United States:
"Patenting Air or Protecting Property? Information Age Invents a New Problem"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54548-2003Dec10?language=printer

31 companies sued for using the JPEG image format (the plaintiff
filed for a patent while recommending the adoption in international
bodies of a standard including its patented technology):
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,63200,00.html%3Ftw%3Dwn_bizhead_1

A US company sues companies of on-line content distribution:
http://www.e-data.com/
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5205529.html
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5144097.html

A well-documented file on the reference site Law.com:
http://www.law.com/jsp/statearchive.jsp?type=Article&oldid=ZZZV4RVSSPC

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