Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII • Hacker News Board

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#221

Post by nsajko » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 8:55 PM UTC

jariel wrote: post #159

ohthehugemanate wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing about the EU is, it's not a democratic government. It's atreaty organization that sometimes takes on responsibilities like a government. This dual identity has been a boon in some political situations in the past, but it is also a serious liability. Von der Leyen got the job in a usual way for a treaty organization, but she is much more political than some technocrat. There are factions that like it each wa…

"It is increasingly clear that we need a supranational organization in Europe which IS a democratic government." I don't think that's clear at all. One could very much make the argument that it doesn't need 'governance' it needs 'coordination' which are very different things. I feel the vast majority of the most important things could be achieved mostly by treaty and that everyone could 'have their cake and eat it' w…

Any law will, at some point at least, become to vague. On the other hand, I too have the perception that bills are often carelessly written and too vague[0], but I think your understanding of jurisprudence or what a judge's job should be is not realistic. The system is not meant to be mechanical.

I think that for meaningful discussion to be possible, you would have to provide a much more specific, concrete example; but that of course runs the risk of being beyond the understanding of us non-lawyers.

[0] Somebody on HN opined that this is because most politicians are lawyers, and they have an interest in preserving/increasing job opportunities for lawyers, or something like that. I wish I could find the comment.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#222

Post by 9HZZRfNlpR » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

krageon wrote: post #82

skocznymroczny wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conservative doesn't really mean much anymore on its own. CDU might be considered conservative by Western European standards, but it's liberal by Eastern European standards.

That's more a reflection on how incredibly broken Eastern Europe is. Definitely not a stick to measure anything by. Just like how we do not measure political leaning by US standards (spoiler alert: everything is left wing).

Social issues are definetly not, every single country in Europe would cringe on Californian liberals and think they were high on something. Don't agree with that what so all.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#223

Post by Borlands » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

Maybe this will strenghten Open Source Software

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#224

Post by codethief » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

woodpanel wrote: post #214

KingOfCoders wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In Germany she's well known for nepotism" As a German this is not "well known" to me, do you have a source? Until now I thought one Accenture manager was the godfather of a child of a deparment manager in the ministry of defence and Accenture got an consulting gig? I didn't know until now she was giving jobs to her relatives.

Being a consultant in Germany myself I can tell you that during the whole "Bundeswehr Berateraffäre" (an alledged scandal involving contracts given to consultancies when von der Leyen was Secretary of Defense), that at least all Blue Chip to Mid Cap Stock Index companies in Germany cringed in silence, as the 300M € von der Leyen supposedly embazzled look pathetic to the budgets these companies dump on consultants eac…

> the 300M € von der Leyen supposedly embazzled look pathetic to the budgets these companies dump on consultants each year

Are you saying that Blue Chip to Mid Cap Stock Index companies regularly spend > 1B on consulting?

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#225

Post by redisman » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

jpzisme wrote: post #208

orbifold wrote: post #95

As someone that has invented novel algorithms I still feel Patents are a net negative especially for software. I just wish EU would be a better place for „startup“ innovation. My experience with the university infrastructure in that area isn’t great:

Why do you think this is (avoiding any anti-refugee sentiment in other comments on the thread)? I used to live in Europe and worked with many Europeans while living in the Bay Area. It seems like lots make the jump stateside. Having universal healthcare seems like it would be a big incentive to take entrepreneurial risk vs. our situation here in the U.S.

It’s a bit too simple to say the EU doesn’t create software startups. Some countries/cities do generate plenty of successful startups and some don’t. Just like most US states haven’t produced any successful startups

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#226

Post by cma » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 9:43 PM UTC

ArkVark wrote: post #167

orbifold wrote: post #95

As someone that has invented novel algorithms I still feel Patents are a net negative especially for software. I just wish EU would be a better place for „startup“ innovation. My experience with the university infrastructure in that area isn’t great:

The EU is not a great place for innovation, period. Here are the major problems: 1. No common language 2. Incredibly high taxes, particularly sales taxes 3. Unfinished transition out of Communism in many Eastern Countries 4. Preference for cheap illegal labor instead of automation This could be solved by: 1. Formalising an 'EU English' language so that schools teaching it can open up around the continent and families…

>Withdraw from the UN convention on refugees

How is it illegal labor if it labor from refugees under the legal convention?

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#227

Post by PostOnce » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 9:53 PM UTC

pbowyer wrote: post #10

But only in a "limited and specific" way, so that's okay [UK in-joke] At least we're not the only country wanting to violate international agreements at present

That "limited and specific" thing, it's been going on a while... I found something funny on wikipedia the other day:

Ad extirpanda (named for its Latin incipit) was a papal bull promulgated on Wednesday, May 15, 1252 by Pope Innocent IV which authorized in limited and defined circumstances the use of torture by the Inquisition as a tool for interrogation.[1]

"limited and defined circumstances"

It actually goes on to enumerate those defined circumstances, but I can guess how it turned out in practice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_extirpanda

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#228

Post by DoctorOetker » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 10:08 PM UTC

jariel wrote: post #207

fxtentacle wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She hired the company where her son was working using taxpayer money. And then that company paid commission for it to her son. So she indirectly paid taxpayer money to her son.

This isn't remotely an example of corruption unless there is a direct conflict of interest. If she hired her son directly, or as part of the team, if he was lobbying her, then it's a problem. But if her son worked at IBM and she, as Defence Minister hired IBM for some defence contract, then it's irrelevant. Edit: I should be clear, among the elite, specifically if there are central groups which exist especially withi…

both your examples and the parent claim that commission went to the son sound like textbook corruption to me!

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#229

Post by M2Ys4U » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 10:52 PM UTC

lumost wrote: post #56

skocznymroczny wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conservative doesn't really mean much anymore on its own. CDU might be considered conservative by Western European standards, but it's liberal by Eastern European standards.

Are there any major pan-european parties? (that are taken seriously)

I guess it depends on your definition of "political party".

The EU has what's called a "political party at European level", there are 10 of these registered and a few more that don't meet the criteria to register.[0]

Most of these parties - and in particular the biggest two, the EPP[1] and PES[2] - don't allow individuals to become members.

Instead their members are political parties at national and regional parties that already exist in the member states.

One or two of the other parties are built around member states' parties, but also offer individual membership. ALDE,[3] the third-largest party, is one that does.

There are a few more parties that are active but don't meet the criteria to register.

The Pirate Party,[4] already mentioned by others, is one, but that too is a party-of-parties.

Volt Europa[5] is probably the only serious attempt at creating Europarty that is comprised predominantly of individuals, although even they allow for national-level parties as members in their statutes.

What can make things slightly confusing is that in the European Parliament MEPs don't actually formally sit as parties, but rather as political groups, of which there are 7. There are MEPs that don't sit in a group, but these tend to be more fringe parliamentarians, typically on the far-right.

The EPP and PES are big enough to have groups (EPP and S&D, respectively) that are more or less coterminous with their parties, but the other parties work together.

The European Greens sit with the European Free Alliance[6] along with the Pirate Party and Volt Europa, for example.

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[0] Regulation 1141/2014 [7] lays down the requirements. Amongst the details of the legal restrictions that have to be adhered to is the requirement to have elected representatives, or achieve 3% in European Parliament elections, in at least 1/4 of the member states.

[1] The European People's Party (EPP), this is the party of both the current Commission President and Merkel: https://www.epp.eu/

[2] The Party of European Socialists: https://www.pes.eu/en/

[3] https://www.aldeparty.eu/

[4] https://european-pirateparty.eu/

[5] https://www.volteuropa.org/

[6] These are mostly sub-national regionalist and/or separatist parties. https://www.e-f-a.org/

[7] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32...

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#230

Post by ricohboy » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 11:04 PM UTC

Roritharr wrote: post #103

_Microft wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm german and it's the first time I hear someone calling her corrupt or nepotistic.

Never heard the term "Berater-Affäre"?

Literally "consultant affair" so consultant-gate isn't a bad translation