Software patents are (generally) supported by big software companies and (generally) opposed by individual programmers (at least in my experience), so it comes as little surprise that the European Parliament seemed headed towards enacting a corporate-friendly software patent law. But reasonable amendments to the law passed by the parliament as a whole were tossed out by the Council of Ministers, some of whom then mislead their constituents on this fact. Because of this, the Dutch Parliament looks to be headed towards being the first nation in the EU to order its Minister to revoke his vote and force a parliamentary reconsideration of the law. This post on OS News is a fascinating account of angry Dutch geeks deciding to do something about a bad law -- and succeeding.

This is a good example of how democracy can work. Maybe it will work. :)

Posted by: Taran on June 23, 2004 8:51 PM