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Alan Cox: Fight European Patent Law

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/21/ns-15719.html

Alan Cox: Fight Euro patenting law

Thu, 01 Jun 2000 15:14:15 GMT Will Knight

Alan Cox says US-style patent regulations should be resisted and calls the technical community to arms... Will Knight reports

Linux kernel developer Alan Cox called on European open source supporters Thursday to fight moves within the European Union to introduce strict software patenting.

During his keynote speech at the European Linux 2000 conference in London, Cox said that pressure from America to introduce US-style software regulations would have disastrous results for the European software industry.

In Europe it is possible to patent a complex software system but not elementary or abstract aspects of that system. In contrast the US allows specific parts of a software system to be patented. The EU is currently debating doing the same. It is expected to issue a directive by the third or fourth quarter.

Cox says the US system places ludicrous limitations on small software companies and open source developers because they have to pay a licensing fee every time they use a common programming technique. ...

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