On Thursday, May 13, 2004 22:47, Mandrakesoft Team wrote: > Flash: EU Software Patent Legislation: a real threat for Linux and > Open Source > > Mandrakesoft would like to alert all users and the software > community at large about a recent clandestine attack by proprietary > interest through covert adoption of EU Software Patent Legislation. > > In direct contravention of the recent vote by the European > Parliament to curtail Software Patents, the Irish Presidency of the > European Union has surreptitiously reinstated unlimited software > patent language into the > text of a statement to be adopted by the European Council of > Ministers > on Monday May, 17th, without further debate! > > The new text, if adopted, will extend Software Patents to every > piece of software, including computer programs, data structures, > and process descriptions. This will directly harm most software > firms and all Open Source projects unable to pay patent licensing > tribute, and amounts to > an appropriation of the public domain by proprietary interests. A > direct beneficiary will be a new class of pure patent companies > without > any real business or contribution to employment, which will use the > threat of litigation to extort payments. > Of note is that a sponsor of the Irish Presidency is Microsoft, > currently building a large patent portfolio. If the Software Patent > text is adopted, Microsoft may use this patent portfolio against > Linux > and other Open Source projects. > > Mandrakesoft would like to forewarn and mobilize its users and the > software community about the very real threat of such a law. Please > contact the media, your political representatives, and your > government, > and urge them to vote against unlimited Software Patents and to > revert > to the previous European Parliament position. > > For further information please see the following links: > http://swpat.ffii.org/journal/04/cons0507/index.en.html > http://kwiki.ffii.org/SwpatcninoEn > > Mandrakesoft Online Team.
God bless you. William -- William Villanueva http://www.purity.ph PGP key ID 0xDF608588 Registered linux user #179111 ================================================== A drop of ink may make a million think. -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
