Stories about: European Parliament

The European Parliament rejected attempts to criminalize the sharing of files by private individuals, and threw out the idea of banning copyright abusers from the Internet, in a plenary vote Thursday.

Europe is moving forward with their own satellite navigation system after years of setbacks and delays threatened to derail the ambitious project.

Consumers in Europe have another group looking out for their digital rights with the opening of a Brussels office by the U.S. nonprofit group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

A leaked letter to the European Commission has revealed the extent of lobbying by proprietary software groups to prevent the widespread adoption of open-source software.

The three largest groups in the European Parliament have decided to conditionally show their approval of a controversial patent agreement, in a move that is likely to have a significant effect on the future of European software patent policy.

The US government has managed to push the discussion about the proposed .xxx top level domain to the next ICANN meeting, causing a flare up in the debate about who controls the internet.

Opponents of attempts to allow software to be patented in the European Union warned Monday that new consultations on an E.U.-wide general patent could be used to reintroduce software patents through the back door.

A new plan by the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) designed to protect open source projects from patent lawsuits has already attracted criticism from the US and Europe, with critics arguing the project will be effectively useless against the patent threat.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to reject proposed legislation that critics argued would have allowed the widespread patenting of software in Europe.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will take the next crucial step in a four-year-long battle over software patents within the European Union (E.U.) on Wednesday, when they hold a decisive vote on a proposed E.U. law, or directive, on computer-implemented inventions (CII). The proposal has been dubbed the "software patent directive" by its opponents.

The European Parliament's legal affairs committee has voted in favor of proposed legislation to harmonize the rules for awarding patents across the 25-member European bloc, a result seen by some as favorable to big IT vendors.