[olePigeon]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21266

[turtle777]

Why am I not shocked... ?

-t

[brapper]

not so much blackmailing if it would truly become unprofitable for them to employ those 800 people, but yeah he's a dick either way.

[demograph68]

European Union's proposed directive on software patents

To someone please explain what this means? Thanks.

[turtle777]

Originally posted by demograph68:
To someone please explain what this means? Thanks.

Little and small software companies going DOWN !

-t

[Sherwin]

Originally posted by demograph68:
To someone please explain what this means? Thanks.

AFAIK, you can't patent software here (only copyright the finished code or window layouts).
I've no idea what this is about but I'd guess that they're proposing allowing people to patent their software. Which means... ...Uncle Bill patenting everything and loads of other companies going bump for patent infringement.

(that's just a guess, BTW)

[Oisín]

Originally posted by brapper:
not so much blackmailing if it would truly become unprofitable for them to employ those 800 people, but yeah he's a dick either way.

I think you've misread the article.

This is the case:

Navision is one of the great successes in Danish software history. The mergered with Damgaard a few years ago, and Microsoft bought the resulting company in 2002 (there might be a few slight inaccuracies in that telling, but it's the general outline of the case).

Now, because this software patent directive is being stalled and dragged out indefinitely (and hopefully never passed), Bill Gates is threatening/stating that if it's not passed, he will close down Navision in Denmark and move it to the US, thus taking out 800 jobs in Denmark in the process.

The quote in the original article from Børsen (linked to from the Inquirer article) says that, »hvis jeg skal beholde mit udviklingscenter i Danmark, kræver det, at der kommer en afklaring på rettighedsspørgsmålet. Ellers flytter jeg det til USA, hvor jeg kan beskytte mine rettigheder,« which translates to, "if I'm to keep my development centre in Denmark, it will require some clarity/clarification on the issue of copyrights. Otherwise, I'll move it to the US where I can protect my rights."

We all knew it would end badly three years ago when Navision-Damgaard agreed to the 12 million DKr purchase by Microsoft...

[olePigeon]

It's so you can't patent

main()

Then charge everyone in the world for using it in their program.

[sugar_coated]

Such threats are not becoming of a great company like microsoft.