3 ms·

This whole "Europe could become the new center of the world" sounds like wishful thinking to me. Asia seems a far better bet.

cageface 14y ago
Asia is, without a doubt, going to be a crucial market, but, for whatever reason, Asian countries don't seem to be very good at software development yet compared to the U.S. and Europe.
danmaz74 14y ago
Center of the world, nope. Center for software development... not impossible (IF the USA will continue on its current route with software patents).
brador 14y ago
People seem to forget Europe is the largest economy in the world. It has the talent, is mostly developed, with free trade laws and no software patents. The main thing holding Europe back right now is language. With a unified language Europe would be an amazing market to aim for.
- Chris_Newton 14y ago
  [Europe] has the talent, is mostly developed, with free trade laws and no software patents. Unfortunately, while we have so far kept EU-level legislation legitimising software patents off the books, the price seems to be a continuing lack of consistency in patent rules across Europe. They may not be called software patents, but that doesn't mean there haven't been patents granted in some jurisdictions that you or I might describe in those terms. Whether any such patents would be enforceable in practice is another question again, but now we’re back to whether you have the stomach to get into a lawsuit over it, and a largely unquantifiable threat to software businesses. The main thing holding Europe back right now is language. Well, that and the fact that it’s still relatively difficult to accept money from customers on-line. We’ve been looking into this lately, and in some ways the situation does seem to be improving. However, for whatever reason our payment services market here still seems to be lagging several years behind what is available in some other places, notably the US. To us, this is a far bigger practical problem than any theoretical concerns about software patents.
- danmaz74 14y ago
  Unfortunately, I don't see a unified European language coming any soon (even if English is on a good track there).

cageface 14y ago

Asia is, without a doubt, going to be a crucial market, but, for whatever reason, Asian countries don't seem to be very good at software development yet compared to the U.S. and Europe.

danmaz74 14y ago

Center of the world, nope. Center for software development... not impossible (IF the USA will continue on its current route with software patents).

brador 14y ago

People seem to forget Europe is the largest economy in the world. It has the talent, is mostly developed, with free trade laws and no software patents. The main thing holding Europe back right now is language. With a unified language Europe would be an amazing market to aim for.

Chris_Newton 14y ago
[Europe] has the talent, is mostly developed, with free trade laws and no software patents. Unfortunately, while we have so far kept EU-level legislation legitimising software patents off the books, the price seems to be a continuing lack of consistency in patent rules across Europe. They may not be called software patents, but that doesn't mean there haven't been patents granted in some jurisdictions that you or I might describe in those terms. Whether any such patents would be enforceable in practice is another question again, but now we’re back to whether you have the stomach to get into a lawsuit over it, and a largely unquantifiable threat to software businesses. The main thing holding Europe back right now is language. Well, that and the fact that it’s still relatively difficult to accept money from customers on-line. We’ve been looking into this lately, and in some ways the situation does seem to be improving. However, for whatever reason our payment services market here still seems to be lagging several years behind what is available in some other places, notably the US. To us, this is a far bigger practical problem than any theoretical concerns about software patents.
danmaz74 14y ago
Unfortunately, I don't see a unified European language coming any soon (even if English is on a good track there).