Microsoft prohibits GPLed work via licensing of CIFS standards

[Xavi Drudis Ferran]

El Sat, Apr 06, 2002 at 09:21:02PM +0200, Jeroen Dekkers deia:
> 
> important part of the world, but it isn't *the* world. We don't have
> patents in Europe and hopefully never get them. This means patents

I think our time is not for hoping but for helping hope with some 
action. The directive proposal 2002/0047 to introduce software patents 
in Europe has been written (mostly) by the BSA, has been blessed by the 
Comission, and is in the European Parliament and the Council. We better 
make sure our elected politicians know what to vote. 

And Europe _has_ software patents. It's just that they aren't legal, 
so nobody knows how threatening they are until you come back from court.
But something like 30000 software patents have been granted by the EPO.
I'm told they're enough to frighten people and stop them from writing or 
publishing software sometimes. 



-- 
Xavi Drudis Ferran
xdrudis at tinet.org