Microsoft boss Bill Gates threatened to kill 800 Danish jobs if Denmark opposed the European Computer Implemented Inventions Directive, reports today’s Danish financial daily Børsen, quoted by NoSoftwarePatents.com.
“On Thursday (17 February), the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents is widely anticipated to support the request of its Legal Affairs Committee to restart the entire legislative process on the software patent directive,” says the site.
“The request will then be communicated by the President of the EP to the European Commission, which has to decide on how to proceed. The EU Council originally also planned to formally adopt its ‘Common Position’ that day but has had to postpone plans due to resistance by some country governments and national parliaments.
“This month, three parliaments have already spoken out against the Council’s proposal, and a fourth one (the German Bundestag) is scheduled to follow suit on Thursday evening.”
According to Børsen, last November Gates told Danish pm Anders Fogh and two ministers that he’d kill all 800 jobs in Navision, a Danish company acquired by Microsoft in 2002, unless the EU quickly decided to legalize software patents through the directive.
“Denmark is a country with only 5 million inhabitants and a relatively small high-tech sector to which the loss of 800 jobs would have significant implications.”
Read the complete story @ P2Pnet News
