For the seventh time now, the Université Libre de Bruxelles [1] in Brussels, Belgium, is hosting FOSDEM [2].

The impact of meetings like these on the free software community as awhole is huge. Apart from the obvious attractions of the meeting, such asthe ability to go to different talks and learn about exciting newthings related tofree software or to see demos at different stands, FOSDEM also allowsyou to meet people from all kinds of different backgrounds.

In early 2006, the European Commission began talking about a “final attempt” to fix the European patent system.

We heard the standard concerns about Europe’s innovation gap. “How can we catch up with the Americans?” “How can we prevent the Chinese invasion?” “We need a better system of intellectual property rights.” “We need stronger protection for rights holders.” These noises came out of the Commission, in meetings, and speeches; we heard echoes from large software companies and the industry clubs they sponsor. SAP, in particular, began calling very loudly for a cheaper, stronger patent system.

And the focus of all these noises has been “EPLA” (the European Patent Litigation Agreement), a new system designed to make it easier to enforce patents. EPLA is not, superficially, about software patents at all. But dig deeper, and it’s exactly that: a third major attempt to introduce software patents, by removing all remaining regulation of the patent industry.