European Patent Law Protests Heating Up

from the good-for-them dept

Realizing they don't want to get stuck with a US-style patent-law that allows for software and business process patents stifling innovation, people are taking to the streets and organizing online protests against a new patent law in Europe that has been condemned far and wide as being harmful to innovation. If the entire point of patents are to promote innovation, and it's easy to show how certain patents harm innovation, shouldn't that be reason enough to change the system? My only other (yes, completely random) question is why are "interested mimes" taking part in the protest? What is their "interest" in the matter?
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  • identicon
    LittleW0lf, 26 Aug 2003 @ 2:35pm

    A mime is a terrible thing to waste...

    My only other (yes, completely random) question is why are "interested mimes" taking part in the protest? What is their "interest" in the matter?

    Ah, yes, but they cannot tell you what their interest is...they'll have to show you instead. (Or maybe they are interested MIMEs, as in MIME Header fields.)

    Sorry, couldn't resist that one. I'll go back to my homebrew now and shut up....

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 26 Aug 2003 @ 2:59pm

      Re: A mime is a terrible thing to waste...

      Damn. I wish I had made the bet. Before I posted the story this morning I asked someone else to read the article to make sure it *really* said "interested mimes" and I wasn't hallucinating.

      Then, in thinking about it, I began to wonder if it did have something to do with MIME headers, and thought about betting someone on whether or not anyone would make that connection as well.

      Should have known...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        LittleW0lf, 26 Aug 2003 @ 6:41pm

        Re: A mime is a terrible thing to waste...

        Damn. I wish I had made the bet. Before I posted the story this morning I asked someone else to read the article to make sure it *really* said "interested mimes" and I wasn't hallucinating.

        Nope, you weren't hallucinating, apparently they had shown up for another rally in May. The funny thing that brings up another question, is how do mimes protest? That would be some site to see. I figure that they probably have placards with anti-patent messages, but I am not sure how they could yell "No stupid patent laws" like the rest of the crowd.

        Of course, the MIME header thing was purly a shot at dry English humor, but apparently it may have worked.

        A strange world we live in, where mimes are allowed to protest freely, while women and children are afraid to go out side for fear of being accosted by circus clowns.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Munich, 26 Aug 2003 @ 3:19pm

    European Innovation?

    They should be protesting their their business culture. If you have a LOT of time, Denbeste did a pretty good opinion piece:

    http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/12/EuropeanDecline.shtml

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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