Take your time to fill in this form http://petition.eurolinux.org/index_html
And make all your friends do the same for god sake!
This is very important for everybody in Europe that owns a computer. So do not just ignore this!
edit: woops, wrong forum, please move to off-topic
edit: Moved - Evention
It’s even more important to OpenSource software fans like me.
Signed the petition.
I get your point, but patents are a two-sided too.
M$ created a new office XML-based format and wants to patent it. If it will, opensource office packs, like OpenOffice, KOffice, GnomeOffice and commercial office packs that try to fight with M$ like StarOffice and similar won’t be able to give compatibility and thus the project will fail. So infact patents in some can also destroy those small innovative companies, patents are also bad.
I know that the law varies between countries. For example in Poland you can use any patented technology wiothout paying any royalties if it’s the only way to achieve compatibility, but it’s a nonesense to create 190 types of OpenOffice just because every country treats patenting software in other way. We need general and simple law for the whole world.
Patents would be good, if M$ and other too ambitious companies didn’t exist. M$ only waits for patents to patent everything it ever made and then all the small companies and opensource projects will be dead. Do you want it?
And the story about opensource is bullshit. The key with opensource is that so many people can develope a single project, that there will always be new ideas on how to improve it. I many people living around the world work on a single program there will always be some people among them who will have new ideas.
And I think that the key with new software on the commercial market is the price. If you make an innovative music program with an original feature, then Cubase guys insert the same feature into Cubase then you’re only dead if your software is such expencive as Cubase. If you’ll sell a cheaper program with innovative feature you’ll always get users.
what’s so bad with working in a restaurant!?? 
I said, MS created a NEW format and wants to patent it. That’s what the whole fuss is about. Microsoft can’t of course do what it wants, but will fight OS in any possible way. The dream of MS is a world without OS, just like the dream of OS community is a world without monopolistic companies. People won’t go into other operating system easily. If it was so simple there would be lots of Linux/MacOS/FreeBSD/OpenBSD/whatever users already, because it’s already known that free Linux applications will always be better than Windows free applications (there is a lack of commercial software on Linux so OS commmunity needs to develop good free software for the community), just like it’s known that Macs are more powerful than PCs. Also BSD users know that it’s much safer than Winddows, but still Win users don’t want to get convinced. Win users do not WANT to change, that’s teh problem. It’s easier to download cracked PhotoShop through DC++ than to lear GIMP on Linux, that’s the problem.
Imagine you studied programming for 15 years and now you have to work in a restaurant or a coal mine. It’s not fair.
I have a friend who worked with computers, programming, 3D graphics and games and now he works at a cafe. He says it’s the best job he’s ever had! 
Johan: I think it’s a special case.
I was just being an asshole there… 
But, I still need to make a point… some skills needed for certain positions in restaurants easily equals the skills of your said programmer that has 15 years of studies*… And I guess this applies for certain positions in a coal-mine aswell… Hence, my wink to you is to Not generalize so easily…
A:R
)by ‘studying’ I meant ‘learning’. A working, active programmenr would learn his job for many years, would improve all the time and after than - he would be fired from some good job and have to work in a coal mine.
Guest, you are obviously missing the whole point. Please read the references here for more information http://petition.eurolinux.org/reference/index.html
You maybe think that one can not patent anything, but if these proposed laws will be granted that is exactly what is going to happening, people or companies will in some situations even be able to patent things that have been used for years and things that they have obviously not invented themselvs, take a look here for more info:
http://petition.eurolinux.org/reference/examples.html
On your story it sounds like it is the small companies that earn most from software patents cause that wont ruin their business and they will go bankrupt before they have time to realize their ideas. Then it is very strange that this isn’t happening already today, before we have these laws, and it is not a coincidence that so many small and medium-sized businesses in Europe think that these type of patents are harmfull. Read more here:
http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat02…9/index.en.html
It is patents that will kill the small companies, not the other way around.
It is very dangerous when people or companies can patent vague ideas, obivous methods and old technices, and atleast I do not want this to happen here in Europe…
This is not just a question for the open source community, this is a question that concerns the whole sociaty.
Yes, I did notice this myself. This page has worked before, but now it seems like the domain has expired (?) . A bit strange, and a bit clumsy that they havn’t noticed this themselvs… But if you make a search for freepatents.org on google you will find some info about what has been on this page before it expired.
the firm I´m working for was the firts one I guess which was trying to void this. 