Software patents in Europe 1679

This really depends on whether we get the same kind of completely trivial, broad-brush patents in the EU which have been awarded in the US. If that happens, then it could leave open source software in the position of being unable to support certain types of protocol, transaction or interface.

What amazes me is how anyone who is not a software vendor can see any advantages to this. It's a fantastic method for stopping compebreastion in software, which will likely result in patent-supported monopolies.

Does anyone know if Skype have patented their codec? Will it be a patent violation to write a client to interwork with teh Skype network?

Software development may have to move to countries which do not support software patents, which will be excellent for India and China. I expect that we'll see sourceforge-like sites popping up outside of India and China, but businesses in the EU and US will find it difficult to make use of free software, thus will over time become uncompebreastive compared with their Eastern counterparts.

I firmly believe that open source projects will continue, but I also believe that they'll be driven out of Western Countries by those US companies who are trying to maintain monopolies using the patent system.

-- Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. -- Abraham Lincoln