[ale] EU Software Patent Vote

[aaron]

Having mis-stated a couple of the numbers for the EU Parliament vote on 
software patents  at the Central meeting, I thought it would be polite to 
provide the factual numbers. 

The EU Parliament has 729 members. The voting on the directive to
expand software patenting in the European Union came to:

648   Opposed
  14   Support
  18   Abstain
  49   Absent

Only members in attendance at an E.U. Parliament session may vote, and
absentee counts above 40 are reportedly not uncommon.

So of the actual votes cast and counted on the patent directive produced by 
corporate lobbyists (predominantly MicroSoft), the totals came out to be a 
factual,  overwhelming and reality based mandate of 648 to 14. This made it 
amusing to see the corporate media spin where the vote totals were presented 
as "648 of 729":    <http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-5776046.html>

The comments and cautions from one of the mplayer developers sum up the impact 
on OSS development [<http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/news.html >]:
===
[from Diego]
With a truly overwhelming majority, the EU parliament has rejected the 
proposed software patent directive last week. This is a great victory for the 
movement against software patents and a relief for free software and all of 
the software industry in Europe and worldwide. It is also a great personal 
satisfaction for myself and other members of the MPlayer team that have been 
actively lobbying against software patents. Rejoice and be happy for this was 
a grand day indeed. 

Nevertheless all that glistens is not gold and while we have won an important 
battle, this struggle is far from over. There are still thousands of software 
patents that have already been granted in Europe. Furthermore efforts to 
extend patentability toward software will now continue on the national level 
and probably return at the EU level in a few years. Thus we have to continue 
our fight to fend off software patents completely and worldwide. For this we 
need the help of all community members. You have to keep a watchful eye on 
your political representatives, inform them about the issues at stake and 
make sure they pass sensible legislation.
===

I have to agree with Diego's sentiments; in a democracy, civil vigilance is an 
essential and continuous responsibility.  But it is also very encouraging to 
see that there are still legitimate democracies in the world with the 
integrity to found their decisions in concern for the public good and clear, 
simple, common sense logic:
  
     The needs of the many outweigh the greeds of the few.

;-)

peace
(because the only secure nation is a nation at peace)
aaron