[Linux-Biella] Closed because of "Software-Patents"

[Luigidigi]

Ciao a tutti:

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

"In the next few days, the European Parliament will decide about the 
legalisation and adoption of so-called "software patents" in Europe, which 
are already used by large companies in other countries to put competitors 
out of business. This can lead to the termination of many software 
projects such as KNOPPIX, at least within Europe, because the holders of 
the over 30,000 already granted "software patents" (currently without a 
legal foundation) can claim exclusive rights and collect license fees for 
trivial things like "progress bars", "mouseclicks on online order forms", 
"scrolling within a window" and similar. That way, software developers 
will have to pay the "software-patentholders" for using these features, 
even in their own, completely self-developed applications, which can 
completely stall the development of innovative software for small and 
medium companies. Apart from this, the expense for patent inquiries and 
legal assistence is high, for even trying to find out if the 
self-developed software is possibly violating "software-patents", if you 
want to continue to market your software. Contrary to real patents, 
"software-patents" are, in the current draft, monopolization of business 
ideas and methods, even without any tangible technical implementation."
More about the current major problem at: 

http://swpat.ffii.org/index.en.html
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luigi