NewsForge: U.S. to EU on Software Patents: 'We Sold Out, You Should Too'

"European free software advocates, Green Party activists, Socialists, economists, small business owners, and other radicals are working to keep the European Union from instituting U.S.-style software patents. But don't give up hope. The U.S. government and some of the biggest U.S. software vendors are working to bring those backward Europeans into the modern world, where software development can eventually be limited to responsible companies instead of being done by any-old-body with a computer and a good idea.

"Part of the sales pitch being given to the Europeans goes like this: 'The U.S. lets just about anybody (who can afford it) patent just about anything, and we're the world's most innovative nation, so if y'all follow our patent policy it's only a matter of time until you're producing as many innovations as we do...'"

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• NewsForge: Politics in Free Software(Sep 09, 2003)