Hi all, I thought some of you might find this interesting... from: http://www.indymedia.org
More links and pics from the above address Kerry Netwide Protests against EU Software Patents The cream of Europe's politicized programmers took to the streets in Brussels in a protest that counted over 400 protestors. On Wednesday 27 August, at least 2700 websites from the world's Open Source / Free Software community had been voluntarily shut down or had replaced the frontpage with a protestpage in a symbolic protest against proposed European Union software patents legislation. Some IMC's were involved in this online protest as well, such as Germany, Easkalherria, Italy, Madrid and Belgium. The patents directive is seen by its opponents as an attempt to introduce U.S.-style software patents into Europe in order to protect multinational corporations from innovative small software companies, Open Source / Free Software developers, and the file-sharing habits of the vast majority of internet users. The patents directive was scheduled for a vote on 1 September 2003, but the vote has been delayed due to the unprecedented concern in the programming community. Software patents opponents vow that they will use the extra time to organize even more effectively. http://search.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Search - Looking for more? Try the new Yahoo! Search
