[Fsfe-ie] brief What Next for our favourite directive

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

The perfect outcome would be getting the directive made a B-item in the
Council, like a replay of last May, except we won't sit on our hands.
Second best is a restart in the parliament.  Virtually the same outcome, but
the process would go on for longer since there would also be a repeat of the
Parliament first reading stage.


Mircosoft's friends the Association for Competitive Technology are
suggesting binning the directive and letting things cool down before
starting again[0].  I read this as "We see that we're losing in the EU, so
lets win in India, Oz, and China and come back with WTO pressure - and after
a lot more software idea patents have been granted by the EPO"

[0] people point to http://www.techcentralstation.com/021805A.html as a
reference, but I can't find the reference from skimming that boring article

So we're winning, but now we also have to be on guard for McCreevy binning
the whole thing.


To get a B-item, we have to talk to our Council rep, Micheál Martin.  I'm
going to get cracking on that, but this weekend is FOSDEM here in brux, so
it'll be early next week by the time I have a draft.


So, what's my point?  Well, none, just a general update.


-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan
http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/
Free Software in Ireland: http://www.ifso.ie