<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18854">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face="Comic Sans MS">Many pirates have a
background in IT, and many were involved in the political debate about software
patents when the European directive for "computer-implemented inventions" was on
the table - from 2002 when it was proposed by the Council, until 2005 when it
was rejected by the European Parliament.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face="Comic Sans MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face="Comic Sans MS">Recently I noted that there
is some confusion on the priorities in the field of patents in 2010. Some people
still believe that software patents are something very special that deserves
special attention - and disapproval. In learned in recent years, that patents in
almost all fields are used in a manner that is detrimental for society, *even*
in medicine where patents are often supposed to be indispensable to recover the
multibillion R&D investments. Yes, I am aware that software patents are
particularly dtreimental for a number of reasons, but none of these reasons is
really exclusive to software.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face="Comic Sans MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face="Comic Sans MS">In other words, I would
propose that PP takes a critical stance on patents in *all* fields, not
specifically in software!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face="Comic Sans MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2
face="Comic Sans MS">reinier</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>