Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
(other focuses are the amount of currently legal software that will suddenly become illegal, the need for Irish govt & industry to be able to implement it's own software security unhindered, and with the amount of good reports the EU have recently produced regarding Free Software, I think it's finally time to give it a mention.)
I think another powerful point is the US Federal Trade Commission's very critical report on software patents. Many European governments seem to look to the US for direction on matters of technology and innovation, and perceive this direction to be one of increasingly relaxed control over what may be patented. The FTC report is a useful antidote to this.
See http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/10/innovationrpt.pdf.
Ian.