This is the best news I’ve heard all year, literally. The fact that Parliament rejected something that was lobbied for very strongly by big corporations is good news to me. I have faith in the EU’s democratic process with this.
Software patents were rejected by a 648-14 vote with 18 abstentions. That is just amazing. I guess it just shows that real grassroots efforts can pay off.
Now all we need is to get this in the US, but I really doubt that it will happen unfortunately.
Here is some coverage:
http://www.europe.redhat.com/news/article/431.html
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/07/06/eu_bins_swpat/
http://lists.ffii.org/pipermail/news/2005-July/000302.html
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?Feed=AP&Date=20050706&ID=4905885
http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/07/06/1235211