Demonstation against Software Patents in Brussels

ZooBaB writes "On May 8 morning in European Parliament in Brussels, innovative software companies such as MySQL, Galeco, Ilog, Opera ... will gather with Richard Stallman and MEPs from the Greens-efa Group to voice their concerns on the implications of software patents on SMEs. Eurolinux calls on software developers, software companies, and all those who support copyright protection for software to come in Brussels and to participate to a demonstration at Place du Luxembourg."

oy vey

[XO]

Well, with RMS there, who really thinks they are going to convince anyone of anything, except that the open source people are raving lunatics?

I will come

[Sam Lowry]

end of message

impressive event

[zogger]

--the topics being presented all sound well thought out and important. I wish the folks there well, last thing they need is a US styled collapsed bloated patenting scheme.

Novels & paintings aren't protected by patents

[rollingcalf]

If literature and math aren't protected by patents, then why in the world should software qualify for patents, when it is essentially just a combination of the two?

Re:Novels & paintings aren't protected by pate

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

Because a computer program is really just a machine that can do a function. If you can patent a machine that can "magically" compress music to 1/12 it's size, why can't you patent a computer program that does the same thing?

You can't patent a book because the book does not function. You can't patent a music track or a JPEG for the same reason. You can patent a method of encoding a music track or a JPEG.

I'll be going

[barnsleyBigUn]

Holding a big sign saying "Down with Software Patents, we like Linux (NOT Gnu/anything)"... ;-)