Europe rejects patent proposal

The
controversial software patent proposal, which caused a wave of panic in the
programming communities, has been rejected by the European Parlament. A
patent is a document granting an inventor sole rights
to an invention, which is good to preserve the original idea of the product and
avoid exact copies, but can have a very negative impact.

While
this can be understandable in a very competitive world, it may not
seem wise to introduce this patent system in the software area. The large
corporations would easily crush the small competitors, which means consumers
would pay more for less. The rejected patent proposal could also aniquilate
Linux and other open source projects, resulting in a bigger dependency from
enterprises like Microsoft and other large American corporations. Even small
things, commonly used in almost every software, like using email,
double-clicking or context menu's, would require extra money to use them.

Thankfully, this non-sense proposal was rejected and
programmers can still continue to develop great software without worrying about
patents!

A government representative said that 648 out of 729 members of the European Parliament voted Wednesday to reject the proposal, called the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive, which would have widened the extente to which software could be patented. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, or FFII, described the decision as a "great victory for those who have campaigned to ensure that European innovation and competitiveness is protected from monopolization of software functionalities and business methods." While many software developers have spoken out against the directive from the start, large companies have lobbied in its favor, often via campaign groups such as the Business Software Alliance, CompTIA and the Campaign for Creativity. These groups and the companies behind them, such as Microsoft and IBM, have put significant money and effort into arguing their cause. Read the full article here.

It is a relief for everyone
that develops software. A huge victory for them and specially for the
consumers, which are now ensured that they get quality products. The European
Parlament hasn't closed this dossier but it's clear that there a lot of
members willing to vote against a reformulated directive. I truly think it would
be a waste of resources and it could also kill programmers imagination. What are
you thoughts on this matter? Do you think it's good for software development?
 

Source: C|net News