[ILUG] Eek! McCreevy wants to legalise Software Patents via a US-EU patent treaty

[Braun Brelin]

On 5/20/08, Colm Buckley <colm at tuatha.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> That's what you get when you join a larger union.  You gain the benefits of
> being inside a large, powerful bloc, and you lose some
> independence.  That's
> the way it *works*.  The comparison with the USA is dubious - the states of
> the US have considerably *less* individual autonomy than do the nations of
> the EU.



It's not as dubious as you think.  If you look back at the history of the
United States, the indivual states
had far more power in the 19th century than they do today.  For
instance, today, U.S. Supreme Court rulings
are binding on all 50 states and various territories of the United
States, this wasn't historically true.  Many states
(and executive branch authorities) ignored the Supreme Court if it
conflicted with their wishes, desires and laws

In fact, the Civil War was fought, at least from the
southern states motivation, because of a desire to keep this concept
of greater rights for individual states and less power for the federal
government.  It's only because the North won
that the history books were written so as to  cast the U.S. Civil War
as a war to free slaves.

The main point being here that erosion of autonomy doesn't happen all
at once, it's a gradual process that
is always
cast in the most moble of motives ("Keep us secure against
terorrists", "Greater economic benefits").  It's only in
hindsight that people realize that they've sold their birthright that their
forefathers and mothers gave blood and lives for.

Braun

Colm
>
>
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> Colm Buckley / colm at tuatha.org / +353 87 2469146
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