EU patent news

[Ivan Leo Murray-Smith]

The anti patent petition was a success, the EU law approved on the 24th has been
changed so much sine the original version that software freedom is preserved, so
decss will stay legal in europe, thanks to all that signed the petition. The
complete approved text can be found here
http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/plen0309/resu/index.en.html
best parts are

3a. Member states shall ensure that data processing is not considered to be a
field of technology in the sense of patent law, and that innovations in the
field of data processing are not considered to be inventions in the sense of
patent law.

6. The rights conferred by patents granted for inventions within the scope of
this Directive shall not affect acts permitted under Articles 5 and 6 of
Directive 91/250/EEC on the legal protection of computer programs by copyright,
in particular under the provisions thereof in respect of decompilation and
interoperability.

6a. Member States shall ensure that, wherever the use of a patented technique is
needed for a significant purpose such as ensuring conversion of the conventions
used in two different computer systems or networks so as to allow communication
and exchange of data content between them, such use is not considered to be a
patent infringement.