EPO is Corrupt Like Always, What Changed is the Lack of Media Coverage (No Transparency Means No Democracy)
THE EPO's management is just about as corrupt as ever, but sites that cover or focus primarily on covering patents have been largely inactive, completely inactive, or so scarcely (seldom) active that it's not clear if they still exist at all. Benoît Battistelli governed when there was still some online media, whereas António Campinos is governing while IP Kat is controlled by "industry" (litigation) and a bit less than half as active as a decade back.
We need to revive online media and encourage dissent. Right now, as in every day, the EPO breaks the law to grant European software patents - i.e. patents which are both illegal and undesirable. The current media, or what's left of it, calls these "hey hi" (AI, typically just a synonym/drop-in replacement for "computer program" these days) and conflates patents with innovation. █
More recent from IPS Communication Foundation:
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Journalism: Self-defense of society
With the emergence of a strong social vein in Kurdish politics, the Özgür Gündem newspaper, which began its publication life in May 1992 to reach a wide audience, became a constant target of the rulers of the state. Despite the killing of child-aged newspaper distributors, reporters, the arrest of its employees, and its repeated closures, the newspaper, which started again under different names, created the Free Press (Özgür Basın) tradition through its stubbornness.
On Dec 3, 1994, although the İstanbul and Ankara offices were bombed simultaneously by the written order of then Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, we are talking about a newspaper that was published the next day. In essence, this newspaper engraved on its masthead a defense of truth that produces, resists, and never gives up against pressure, closures, and censorship.
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Journalism that will make us say 'it was worth it'
Imprisonment, isolation, unemployment, threats, bans, censorship... This is a summary of what I’ve gone through. Yet, I remain hopeful, both for journalism and for my country. Despite everything, the generation I belong to does not give up on writing, reporting, and speaking out.