The European Parliament votes today whether to allow patenting of software inventions, like the U.S. has had for decades, to the utter destruction of the domestic software business, as we all know.

Oddly, the European Luddites are smaller software companies, which should be the entrepreneurial type, just itching to outdo the big weeds, eager for an intellectual property land grab and a chance to profit from innovation. But this is Europe, with its rigid labor laws, its anti-globalization zest, and it's head up its ass on economic policies, including, just possibly, patents.