Internet wide chat

[Urko Fernandez]

On Tue, 2008-04-22 at 16:31 +0200, Bernie Innocenti wrote:
> And even if they _do_ ask you, patent law only allows patent holders
> a compensation proportional to the market opportunity involved in
> the specific breach.  So, if I download an mp3 codec, I can be
> asked to refund the market value of an mp3 codec.

So, what's the situation in Europe? Is software patent law enforced? The
European Patent Convention says in its Article 52, paragraph (2) (c)
that "schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing
games or doing business, and programs for computers" are not patentable.
Are codecs considered programs?

http://www.epo.org/patents/law/legal-texts/html/epc/2000/e/ar52.html