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posted by martyb on Sunday June 25 2017, @08:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the patently-absurd dept.

Roy Schestowitz at Techrights has summarized the situation at the European Patent Office (EPO) with a Primer on the Crises and Scandals. Spying on staff, filtering staff web access, and union busting are just a sample of the shenanigans by top EPO management. And of course one chronic tale of woe includes the continued attempts by a few within the organization to introduce software patents into Europe. Software patents are a solid threat to all who use software for personal or, especially, business ends. As they fade from North America, vigilance is needed in Europe.


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  • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @08:39PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @08:39PM (#530950)

    Especially when that monopoly is explicitly based on the principle of "Do as I say" coercion!

    • If a business performs badly, then it goes bankrupt, and its resources get bought up by more competent stewards.

    • If a governmental agency performs badly, then it demands more resources on the point of a gun.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @09:26PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @09:26PM (#530958)

      If a business performs badly, then it goes bankrupt

      Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner (or whatever name they're going by this week in their attempt to escape their heinous reputation).

      Welcome to the post-Thatcher/post-Reagan era, Mr. van Winkle.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @09:32PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @09:32PM (#530961)

        Try again.

      • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:28PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:28PM (#530970)

        Try again...

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @12:33PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @12:33PM (#531275)

        Try again!

  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday June 25 2017, @09:04PM (7 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday June 25 2017, @09:04PM (#530952) Journal

    With due allowance for the fact that those Techrights guys are sometimes a bunch of bomb throwers...

    I wonder why there is so much paralysis in the EU bureaucracy that this one guy seems to steam roller the entire EU. What kind of leverage does he have that allows his mismanagement and power grabs to persist? Does nobody have control of this guy? And if not, why not?

    People (especially in the EU) point fingers of ridicule and derision at the US patent system. But this Battistelli clown pretty much turns that on its head.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @09:56PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @09:56PM (#530966)

      I wonder why there is so much paralysis in the EU

      Microsoft, et al., have bought up the opinions of the majority of "The Free Press".
      It goes something like this: Don't say nice thing about us and the things we like (software patents) and we'll pull our advertising from your publication/site.

      As already mentioned in this (meta)thread, its the post-Thatcher/post-Reagan era.

      As Thatcher said: "There is no alternative" (to unregulated Capitalism).
      She then went about e.g. busting the miners unions and attempting to kill all regulation of business.
      Rinse and repeat for Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May.

      Reagan came right out and said it: "Government is the problem."
      He then want about making it so, deregulating industries and relaxing or even eliminating the enforcement of e.g. anti-trust laws.
      Rinse and repeat for Slick Willie, Dubya, and O'Bummer.
      (The deregulation trend in USA actually started with Carter: telephones and trucking.)

      When governments don't do their jobs, watching after the interests of Joe Average, this is what you get.
      I have repeatedly mentioned Lamestream Media delivering infotainment rather than hard-hitting news as a major contributor to the situation and that loops back to deregulation.
      It's a snake eating its own tail.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:33PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:33PM (#530971)

        The most fine-grained, rigorous, tailored law will come not from vote-grabbing legislatures, but rather from a system of strong contracts, whereby the focus is contract negotiation, contract enforcement, and dispute resolution.

        You won't get better regulation than a system which explicitly threatens bankruptcy with utter indifference.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @11:02PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @11:02PM (#530983)

          How do those contracts get enforced without cops and courts?
          Hired leg-breakers?

          For examples of your government-free Libertarian paradise, check out Somalia and Honduras. [alternet.org]

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

          • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @12:36PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @12:36PM (#531276)

            A government is an organization founded on the principle of coercion.

            How do you enforce contracts? Well, you hire people to enact whatever the contract says you can do, as agreed upon by both sides prior to enforcement.

            How do you ensure that the enforcers don't turn into a government? As always, the answer is well known: Competition; that is what constitutes a true separation of powers, and that is why there has never been and never will be One World Government.

            Get it yet?

          • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday June 26 2017, @07:35PM

            by bob_super (1357) on Monday June 26 2017, @07:35PM (#531485)

            Don't feed the troll.
            He's read the same valid arguments dozens of times.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @01:41PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @01:41PM (#532429)

        > As Thatcher said: "There is no alternative" (to unregulated Capitalism).

        Not only she never said that, but we currently have more regulations than ever.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:15PM

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:15PM (#530967)

      I wonder why there is so much paralysis in the EU bureaucracy...

      The EPO has nothing to do with the EU. Its the member states that run it, and they often don't agree on things.

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