Democracy can win
For the second time in a matter of days, the Dutch government had to withdraw a rather controversial decision. Only days ago, an agreement with software giant Microsoft for delivering software to more than 250,000 computers over a period of 3-5 years was cancelled after companies and organizations raised concern because European rules for required public biddings had been bypassed.

Today, the Netherlands had to withdraw an item from the EU council agenda which would approve software patents in Europe, thereby bypassing the governments wishes in Netherlands, Germany and Poland (who disapprove, but whose EU representatives were forced to approve nevertheless), and also bypassing the European parliament. Read the full story.

It seems like we’re not screwed just yet. EP will have to vote again over this issue during the next term, and I sincerely hope that the representatives will this time actually represent their countries’ real opinion. Death to software patents!