“The European Parliament expects in the next few months to issue
a directive as to whether Europe should follow America’s lead and
introduce software patenting. This will be based on the findings of
an unpublished report from the Intellectual Property Institute in
Britain which will then be debated before being approved by the
European Council of Ministers.”
“The EuroLinux petition against software patents has
received the blessing of Europe’s two main Linux distributors, SuSE
and Mandrake, and is also backed by software companies in 12
European countries. These are Austria, Belgium, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway,
Spain and Sweden.”
“Software patents are a major concern,” comments President of
MandrakeSoft, Jacques Le Marois. “Not only for the Linux & Open
Source Software industry, but for the whole information technology
industry.”