The dead hand of software patents

I've been moved to write the following to my MP and some of my MEPs:

Andrew Murrison, Graham Watson, Neil Parish,

I was concerned to hear that the Court of Appeal has ruled that patents should be allowed on software.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article4907993.ece

The reason that software patents are so bad is that it's so difficult, time consuming and expensive to avoid violating them. One has to hire expensive patent lawyers etc. This is in contrast to copyright, where it's easy to avoid copying someone else's work. So I believe that copyright is adequate for people who want their software to be proprietary.

Please deliver us from the dead hand of software patents!

Regards,

Tony Locke,
Trowbridge,