Lessig spoke about this at Etech last week. His point is a good one.  By adopting software patents, all europe succeeds in doing is undercutting their own software indsutry. And since Europe wants to become an economic powerhouse offsetting the USA, their software patents will be like shooting thesmelves in the foot.

the "democracy" that is Europe. So despite the fact that the EU Parliament has rejected software patents for Europe, and despite the fact that there is not a qualified majority of member states supporting it, the EU Council has now endorsed their draft of the "Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions." This struggle continues to astonish me. There's no good economic evidence that software patents do more good than harm. That's the reason the US should reconsider its software patent policy. But why Europe would voluntarily adopt a policy that will only burden its software developers and only benefit US interests is beyond me. They call it a "democracy" that they're building in Europe. I don't see it. Instead, they have created a government of bureaucrats, more easily captured by special interests than anything in the US. [Lessig Blog]

6:55:14 PM    

Is this mind-numbing or what? all you ahve to do is listen to the BBC or some other european news service to see the cirucs that is American politics today in the absurd, incredulous light in which folks outside our country view it. It's breathtakingly cynical.....

Daily Kos:

Schiavo political impact. It's not pretty for the GOP.

CBS News. 3/21-22. MoE 4%. (February results)

Congress Job Approval

Approve 34 (41)
Disapprove 49 (44)

Bush Approval Ratings

Approve 43 (49)

Should Congress and the President be involved in the Schiavo matter?

Yes 13
No 82

This is turning into a disaster of epic proportions for the GOP. They thought they had the Dems wedged, and instead they have wedged themselves from the American public. Congress is being exposed as the cynical, power-mad, ethics-free zone that it has become under DeLay's leadership.

Read the poll. It has nothing but bad news for Republicans. And don't miss Bush's numbers on Iraq - his approval ratings in the war are down six points in the last month - from 45 percent to 39 percent.

Update: The party breakdown for this poll is:

Republican 44
Democrat 29
Independent 28

If the poll represented the actual partisan breakdown of the US public, the numbers would be far, far worse. [Daily Kos]
6:49:18 PM