FFS people read the article. Germany has upheld precisely three software related patents - ones that were specifically tied to other areas like hardware and ones that were definitely not obvious or with any kind of demonstrable prior art. They have thrown out all others. Given there is no precedent system in the EU it means that each case is heard on its merits alone, so those three cases mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Finally, to quote the article:-

"In fact, more recently the same court has repeatedly upheld the rejection of patent claims to computers and programs operating thereon, as in Rentabilitätsermittlung[30] as well as in Informationsübermittlungsverfahren[31]."

FFS, not this bullshit again. Yes the EPO will grant patents on anything if you're stupid enough to pay. They are NOT legally enforceable though. Read the section entitled "Enforceability before national courts" from your own link.

a) No they don't. They get granted by the EU Patent Office to anyone who is stupid enough to pay as the EU Patent Office is a commercial entity that will sell anything to anyone. However, they are not enforceable.
b) In what way is Firefox hardware?

So basically, the US can shove it's software patents up its ass. H.264 software patents do NOT apply in Europe - and nor will they - there have already been at least two votes on the subject in the EU parliament that were lobbied for by the industry, and both times the proposal was thrown out - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4655955.stm

Bollocks. Software patents do not apply in the EU. Doesn't matter how much you wish it were true, it just isn't.

Software patents will be around for some more time and every user (in the broadest sense; i.e. everyone touching H.264 in any way) is required to get a licence.

Did you not even read the summary? In what way does the people of the USA and South Korea needing a license cover "every user"?

This is a sensible move. It means the rest of the world can move on and ignore all this patent bullshit. It might be bad for the people of the USA, but really, other than Americans who else really cares?

How about:-

5) They just fucking grow up and vote on new laws according to what they actually believe individually.

All MPs are allowed to introduce legislation to be voted on. Why not just carry on doing this and allowing a free vote every time? We need to tell them to stop being so childish and that voting on strict party lines is no longer acceptable.

For the budget and other national issues, take the 3 most expert people on each subject from each party, and lock them in a room until they agree.

These people are supposed to serve us. We have no constitution only tradition, so there are no rules that can be broken. The result of the election should tell them that the general public are just fed up of the lot of them and the way the current system works. We should take the power back and tell them how to work for us.

Bollocks. The Liberal Democrats got 25% of the vote but only 8% of the seats. How is that common sense? Due to constituency boundary changes their share of the vote went up but the number of seats they have actually went down. The system we have is crap and needs to change.

Exactly. Basically it seems to boil down to the fact that the traders don't actually have a clue how it all works. It's so computerised now with such complex algorithms, that if the market moves in anyway they all have to follow like sheep for fear of getting caught with their pants down. And things are getting worse.

I see two solutions:-

1) Go 100% computerised and just throw in the odd random factor to keep things moving. After all, it's all one big random gamble anyway, may as well just admit it.
2) Rip out all the computers and have the traders actually buy and sell real tangible things again.

This old rubbish AGAIN. I wish people would stop spouting such misinformed garbage. From Wikipedia:-

In countries where patents on software algorithms are upheld, vendors and commercial users of products which make use of H.264/AVC are expected to pay patent licensing royalties for the patented technology[8] that their products use.

Basically, MPEG-LA only has jurisdiction in the US, so whilst that tough for you guys over there, in the rest of the world no-one has to pay them a bean. It is free to use on your website. And given that the rest of the world is clearly a majority of the people on the internet, firstly you're pissing into the wind, and secondly your mistaken in the fact that you think that the rest of the world cares.

They're signing up now when this thing isn't even GPL compatible. Do you have any diea what that means?

It means an Ubuntu PC will work with the majority of sites on the Internet while yours won't. Now you can moan about that as much as you like, but 99% of people just don't care - they just want their PC to work.

LOL. The EU will never agree to the US demands in that document. Europe's economy is both larger and stronger. It will be Europe telling the US when to jump soon.

Rubbish. As always during discussions like this you're only talking about the USA. There is a world outside where these problems don't exist. Maybe the US software industry will get locked down, but in reality, not only does the rest of the world not care, but it will use it to its advantage. Time to make sure your passport is up to date.

Within the USA, only people with the express permission of the patent holders can implement H.264 legally.

FTFY

So you can't implement it in the US without paying a fee? My heart bleeds. For me, it's an open standard and free to use. Companies should just implement H.264 for HTML5 - as its clearly the best tool for the job - and keep a separate branch for US downloads that continue to use Flash as they do now. At least that way it's only the US that gets left behind. It's not impossible, they did it when the US had export restrictions on RSA key length.

Wrong and wrong. It is "open source" as there exist an open source implementation of it, what its not is an "open standard", as it requires royalties to be implemented legally (the open source implementation is illegal in any country that recognizes software patents).

The USA in other words. Seriously, the rest of the world just needs to allow the US software industry to descend into one giant patent lawsuit. Why should we care that H.264 is encumbered there? It is clearly the superior codec out there, just implement it already and let the US deal with the legal fallout. Because we all know damn well that if the shoe was on the other foot, they would be going ahead and telling us to suck it up.

I was refused refund in Ireland.

That will be illegal then. You obviously have the right to not exercise your statutory rights, but if it was me I'd be threatening them with small claims court.