EU software patents .. alive

I just saw this over at Boing Boing. The original article hit the net on the 28th but since it’s still going around I would assume that it is confirmed by now.
This is really bad news. Not only did the European Commission fail to take into account the will of the people, through the Parliament, but several members of the commission are, as previously reported, heavily tainted by their ties to the software industry. Mark my words, they will not get away with this.

And apart from being specifically bad news for patents it shows a leniency towards American demands and propaganda that is, to say the least, revolting.

The European Commission has reportedly declined the European Parliament’s request for a restart of the legislative process on the controversial software patent directive. The EP had taken a three-tiered decision to ask the Commission to begin the process from scratch: On 2 February, the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament near-unanimously decided to make this request. On 17 February, the EP’s Conference of Presidents (i.e., the group chairs) unanimously backed that decision. A week later, on 24 February, the plenary of the EP reinforced this by unanimously “inviting” the Commission to review its proposal for a software patent directive although there was no more formal requirement for the plenary to vote on this subject.

NoSoftwarePatents.com received an indication on Friday from the office of a vice president of the Commission and has now heard that the Commission today informed several journalists of its decision.

Florian Mueller, the manager of the pan-European NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign, condemned the Commission’s decision in the strongest terms: “A wannabe Napoleon who heads the Commission and a Microsoft puppet that runs the DG (directorate general) in charge have decided to negate democracy. Now we call on the EU Council to demonstrate a more democratic attitude and to reopen negotiations of its Common Position at the forthcoming meeting of the Competitiveness Council on Monday (7 March).”

At a press conference hosted by NoSoftwarePatents.com and the FFII (Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure) in Brussels on 17 February, French MEP Alain Lipietz had warned that the EP would perceive a denial of its restart request as an “insult”. Other parliamentarians made similar statements on other occasions.

Source: SOFTWARE PATENTS: EUROPEAN COMMISSION NEGATES DEMOCRACY BY DECLINING EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT’S REQUEST FOR A RESTART

Note the Charlie McCreevy, Microsoft, Intel, Ireland connection. Each one should get a slap on the wrist for this. Intel being of course the single largest employers in Ireland (yes, really, with over 5000 employees). And Charlie McCreevy being Irish of course. And besides, Intel has been sucking up EU tax money for years now to stay and expand their plants. But I guess at least that part seems to be over now. Grants are one thing, but subverting the so called democratic process is another.