Reuters/Yahoo!: Software Antagonists Square Off in European Parliament

“A proposal to extend patent protection in Europe could threaten
the existence of open-source software unless the European
Parliament amends it, say advocates of freely distributed programs
such as Linux.

“However, companies such as Microsoft and Apple Computer argue
that they need broader patent protection to prevent open-source
companies, which give away their software and make money through
service, from effectively expropriating their development
costs…”

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