> the EU parliament is a fairly powerless institution This is certainly not true. Thanks to the EU parliament the IT freelancers in the EU don't need to suffer

> the EU parliament is a fairly powerless institution This is certainly not true. Thanks to the EU parliament the IT freelancers in the EU don't need to suffer software patents. The Eurocrats did everything to invent it some years ago, even with dirty tricks (like pushing it through immediately before summer vacation). We IT freelancers contacted politicians of the EU parliament, told them about our concerns, and they actually supported us. I remember the victory celebration at heise.de (a leading IT newsticker in Germany). Usually there are about some hundred comments per hot thread but in this case it was more than eleven thousands.