Sometimes something happens that makes me think that perhaps there needs to be some reworking on the democratic process. Take for example the communications between government and big business. Should companies with millions of dollars be allowed to have unrecorded meetings with the heads of government? Take the recent Denmark story where it was said Microsoft threatened to move their software division out of the country if the software patent directive wasn’t adopted. Microsoft denied the report but apparently admitted that both items were in the discussion. If the discussion was recorded on tape for public record, we’d all be able to decide for ourselves if it was a threat or not.
The latest news is that approximately a week after the EC denied the request to restart the patent directive discussion even though they no longer had a majority in favour of it, the EC Council presidency has denied a request from Poland, Denmark, Portugal and others (not specified) who asked for a B item (discussion point) instead of just voting though an A item. ” The Luxembourg presidency claimed this was not possible due to procedural reasons” and as a result the software patent directive was voted though without further discussion.
Once this goes though, the EU courts will likely fill up with stupid software cases like the SCO/IBM saga where anyone that see’s the potential for money will sue on the off chance for a payout. Worse, big companies can use their big budgets to haul little companies into court and drive them out of business. There is the possibility that this directive will get voted down at it’s second reading to the EU parliament, but it’s apparently much harder to change something at second reading then it was the first time around. The problem is that the EC don’t realise that this will cost them far more money in the long run then any big software companies could invest in their countries. Look at the number of software patent cases going on in the US system if you’re looking for proof. Read the details of the EC story at the FFII.
