Jugalator's Journal: A Sad Software Event

Today, we're reminded of a sad european law that might even let authors be prosecuted for the software they have written themselves. Christian Ghisler (author of Total Commander) is just one of thousands of developers participating in the protest taking place right now. An excerpt from his protest page:

"This page is temporarily closed in protest against software patents planned in Europe. Websites may soon be closed down regularly due to software patents. Shareware like Total Commander will then no longer be available. Software patents can get you prosecuted for publishing software you wrote yourself!"

Read up at FFII's Software Patent page for more information about the problem. You may also wish to sign a petition if you think this law will hurt innovation and competition among software developers. There are currently around 180,000 signatures.