It was looking so good!

But in the last minute, it all turned to custard. What am I talking about? Software patents. For a long time, the revised bill, which excluded software patents explicitly, seemed to be on ice. People in the software industry getting a bit anxious. By all means they were right! In the last minute, a few passages got changed, basically changing the whole meaning of the bill. To use NZOSS‘s words: kiwi software developers [were] thrown under a bus. Some companies even decided to relocate to NZ, exactly because of the (upcoming) ban of software patents. Wonder what they’ll do now… That just sucks! In case you don’t know, as a software developer, your code is already protected by copyright. If somebody copies your code without you allowing it, sue the hell outta them. There isn’t really any need to double-dip and protect software with other means as well. We end up with such stupid patents like Amazon’s 1-Click patent and don’t get me started on the Apple vs Samsung case. Sad day for NZ. And open source developers like me.