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The European Parliament in Strasbourg has thrown out, by 648 to 14 votes, a draft law for EU-wide software patents. The patent scheme was being pushed by Microsoft and a number of other dominant companies.
The difference between a basher and an honest critic is acknowledging when one’s target gets something right. Not only did the EU Parliment get this right, but they did it overwhelmingly. Speaking as a practioner of the art, software patents are almost pure evil. There must be worse intellectual propery law concepts, but I can’t think of any offhand.
[Ward] Churchill, a tenured professor of ethnic studies, said the initial review will probably go against him because the committee is stacked with faculty from the hard sciences, which has different standards for evidence and interpretation than social sciences.
I have to hand it to Churchill for coming out with something accurate and relevant for once.