FYI, this press release just went out.
Press-release of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe)
For immediate release
FSF Europe concludes two successful first years.
(Milano) Last weekend, the Free Software Foundation Europe held its
2003 general assembly in Milano, Italy. After two years of
operation, it was time to draw a first summary and also hold
elections.
Georg Greve and Jonas Öberg were re-elected as president and
vice-president for another two years, Werner Koch was appointed new
Head of Office. The FSF Europe thanks the former Head of Office,
Dr. Peter Gerwinski, for his time, work and dedication.
During the general assembly, the FSF Europe drew a positive summary
of the last two years. Highlights were becoming a partner of the
European Commission in the AGNULA Information Society Technologies
(IST) project within the first year and succeeding with its
recommendation to give Free Software based projects preference for
funding within the whole IST area of the sixth framework programme.
Another highlight area rising in importance especially recently is
the legal safety and maintainability of Free Software.
In order to provide additional protection for Free Software, the
FSF Europe has worked on its Fiduciary License Agreement (FLA), an
agreement that allows authors to make the FSF Europe their
fiduciary for all legal issues and that provides a possible
solution for the needs of the numerous software projects that will
need to establish some form of rights management.
Among the plans for the future are the organisation of a meeting
between the associated organisations of the FSF Europe, as well as
increased work in the legal and political field, which is where the
largest potential dangers to Free Software and the information age
are currently arising.
"Looking back at the past two years is fascinating. We were able to
help convinving the the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights
to commend Free Software to developing countries for its providing
freedom and chances of sustainable local industries," says Georg
Greve, president of the FSF Europe. "Also we opened the windows of
opportunity with the European Commission. Our work for the next
years will not only be to help creating more opportunities, but
also to help people making use of them."
Jonas Öberg, Vice President of the FSF Europe, adds: "FSF Europe is
also a truly global organisation, even if Europe is our main
focus. We have been called upon for advice by governments outside
of Europe, giving us a chance to participate in political
conferences from Tokyo, Japan to Washington, USA."
The 2003 General Assembly was hosted by the Italian Chapter of the
FSF Europe. "The GA came at an important time for the italian free
software community", says Stefano Maffulli, Italian Chancellor.
"The Italian government has just published an interesting report
about Free Software in public administration and the renowed
University Bocconi in Milan has recently held a conference on the
economic viability of free software business."
More information can be found in the two-year executive summary
online at
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/reports/es-2003.html
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free
Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate
in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition -
allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness
for these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and
giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are
central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organization of the Free Software Foundation in the
United States.
http://fsfeurope.org
Contact
Europe:
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org>
phone: +49-40-23809080
fax: +49-40-23809081
Further contact information available at
http://fsfeurope.org/contact/
[ http://fsfeurope.org/documents/reports/es-2003.html ]
Free Software Foundation Europe - General Assembly 2003
Two year executive summary
After the Free Software Foundation Europe was proclaimed with a
"Declaration of Intent - Free Software Foundation Europe" [1] in which
all interested Free Software advocates from all over Europe were
invited to participate in the creation of this common vision, the FSF
Europe officially began its work March 10th, 2001 and finished the
founding process April 24th, 2001.
The 2003 general assembly in Milano, Italy on June 21st 2003 seems
like a good opportunity to briefly recap some of the things going on
in these two years.
Initially, a lot of the work was going into issues of bureaucracy,
legal questions and informing people about the FSF Europe. This was
done on the web, in mailing lists, at tradeshows and conferences.
* OECD Conference in Tokyo
Soon after the FSF Europe took up its work, it was already accepted by
major political players. An example for this was when the German
representative of the FSF Europe, Bernhard Reiter, was asked by the
German ministry of economics (BMWi) to speak about Free Software at an
OECD conference in Tokyo in September 2001. At this occasion, Bernhard
Reiter also had the support of LinuxTag, Linux Verband, German Unix
User Group to speak for the German Free Software scene.
* "We speak about Free Software" campaign
Soon after it started working, Free Software companies were
approaching the FSF Europe to ask for a campaign to increase the
visibility of Free Software and explain the advantages of the Free
Software terminology in comparison with Open Source.
One of the main reasons for this was that they were experiencing an
invasion into their market by proprietary software vendors exploiting
the common "it's open source if you can see the source code"
misunderstanding, claiming to offer something similar to what the Free
Software companies were providing.
Therefore, in November 2001, the FSF Europe launched the "We speak
about Free Software" campaign [2] with support of Free Software
companies across Europe.
Originally only meant for companies, we made one exception by adding
an individual to the list when Bruce Perens, author of the Open Source
Definition, asked us to be added soon after the campaign was launched.
* Bürgerturm ("Citizen Tower")
The FSF Europe also provided input and background about Free Software
in projects that were not directly software-related, like the
Bürgerturm ("Citizen Tower") project [3] in Berlin, Germany.
The vision behind this project was to allow a free and cooperative
design process to build a building by the citizens for the citizens in
the heart of Berlin. According to the initial idea, the design process
as well as the finished building should follow the Free Software
philosophy, creating a visible and tangible implementation of the
Free Software spirit.
In the end, the group hoped to create a multifunctional building that
would be both real and virtual and that would be open to all citizens
24hrs a day.
Although the idea turned out to be too ambitious for the group that
gathered around it, the ideas and documents remain available and we
hope that one day someone will pick them up and bring them to life.
* Free Software for German Parliament
Many people were following the discussion about a possible shift to
GNU/Linux by the German parliament. The FSF Europe actively
contributed to that discussion in December 2001 [4] and provided the
philosophical stepping stone for the Bundestux [5] project, which is
still working to further Free Software in public administration.
* Commission on Intellectual Property Rights
On January 21st, 2002, the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights
took place in London, UK. Besides participants from Microsoft and the
media industry, Georg Greve, president of the FSF Europe, was invited
to the expert workshop on "Copyright, Software and the Internet."
When the final report came out in September 2002, it recommended that
developing countries should consider use of Free Software. [7][8]
* Investigation of the European Commission against Microsoft
Also in January 2001, the FSF Europe got asked for input on the
ongoing investigation against Microsoft by the European
Commission. Thanks to the quick and competent reaction of the SAMBA
team, Dr. Peter Gerwinski, Head of Office of the FSF Europe, was able
to provide concrete material on how Microsoft was trying to keep
competitors out of the market.
* German Copyright law revision
Another issue also found its end that month. The German ministry of
justice was planning a revision of Copyright law to protect artists
from exploitation by the media industry through mandatory payment for
transfer of rights. Unfortunately, this might have jeopardized the
legal security of commercial Free Software, as Free Software is
considered a gift under German law.
Thanks to the well-established cooperation with ifross [9] -- a German
institute for legal questions of Free Software -- the FSF Europe was
able to support the ifross in requesting a supplement to that specific
law, which got accepted in January 2002. [10]
Now the law -- which was enacted April 2002 -- contains an exception
for Free Software.
* A GNU/Linux Audio Distribution (AGNULA)
After many months of preparation and paperwork, the AGNULA project
[11] finally took off in April 2002 with the goal of creating an
entirely Free Software GNU/Linux Audio distribution for professional
users. Thanks to this, the FSF Europe became official partner of the
European Commission within a year after being started.
Within the AGNULA project, the FSF Europe determines the Copyright and
licensing policy, decides which licenses and software packages are
acceptable and makes sure the long-term and community interests are
taken into account. [12]
* 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission
As some people may know, the European Commission has programs to
further pan-European research and development, called "framework
programmes", which last for four years. Within these framework
programmes, there are certain areas, one of which is "Information
Society Technologies" (IST), the area concerned with information
technology. AGNULA for instance was part of the 5th framework
programme IST area.
The 6th framework programme (FP6) was prepared for launch towards the
end of 2002 and originally, there was no mentioning of Free Software.
So the FSF Europe wrote a recommendation [13] for the 6th framework
programme in which the advantages of Free Software for Europe as a
region and the European countries were explained and in which
suggestions were made as to how to capitalize on them. This suggestion
was backed by over 50 parties throughout Europe and filed in April
2002.
In June 2002, the FSF Europe also backed this up by filing two
expressions of interest, FOCAL ("FOcusing Competence for Advantages of
Liberty") [14] and LAFIS ("LAying the Foundations for Information
Society") [15] with some of the parties who signed the recommendation
in order to show that there was real interest in doing something about
Free software in the FP6.
As of December 2002, the suggestion of the FSF Europe -- namely to
give projects with Free Software an evaluation bonus in the rating
process, increasing the chances of Free Software projects in
comparison with proprietary software -- became part of the IST work
programme. [16]
As a result, the whole budget of the IST work programme, containing
1725 million Euro, is available with a preference for Free Software.
The FSF Europe is now working to help consortia for Free Software find
and organize themselves to make sure that as many projects as possible
will make use of this opportunity. [17]
* Web page
In January 2003, after a process of over one year, Jonas Öberg,
vice-president of the FSF Europe, was finally able to put the new FSF
Europe web page on-line with a rather unique structural layout. [18]
In order to appreciate the thought that has gone into the design, one
should know that the FSF Europe follows a federal approach with
parallel local and European/global level. Also everything is
translated into as many languages as possible, while missing or
outdated translations must not pose problems.
This makes for a very complex situation -- but trying to achieve the
maximum transparency possible, that complexity should not be the
concern of the web site visitor. Also the visitor should always get
the best match in terms of selected language regardless of which
translations exist or whether they might be outdated.
The solution for this problem is the "focus" approach. If no focus is
selected, people will see all news and projects that are of European
and global interest. But if they select certain regions of special
interest -- like Italy, France or Germany -- they will also see the
information of specific interest to these countries.
Unlike the situation for other web pages, that local information does
not hide any European or global information, however -- it is provided
additionally. So regardless of the focus, the global information
always remains visible and accessible.
Of course we are still in need of more translators and translations,
as always.
* Fiduciary Licence Agreement (FLA)
With increasing interest in Free Software by companies and
governments, the question of legal safety and maintainability are also
becoming more important. At the same time, authors have a harder time
taking care of the legal needs of their projects and also sometimes
find themselves in the situation of being attacked legally.
In order to provide protection against this and increase the legal
security of Free Software, the FSF Europe has worked on the Fiduciary
Licence Agreement (FLA) [19] with experts in Free Software legal
issues, which was published in February 2003.
This agreement allows authors to make the FSF Europe their fiduciary
for all legal issues and provides a possible solution for the needs of
several software projects that need to establish some form of rights
management.
* bridge foundation
June 2003, the bridge foundation [20] was founded in Berlin, Germany
with the goal of furthering questions of digital citizenship rights in
the information society.
The FSF Europe supports this foundation ideally and personally through
its president, Georg Greve, who is member of the jury for the bridge
ideas contest, in which 15000 EUR will be available to the project
that seems most promising in spreading awareness for these issues.
[1] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/doi.en.html
[2] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/whyfs.en.html
[3] http://www.germany.fsfeurope.org/de/projects/buergerturm/
[4] http://fsfeurope.org/de/news/2001/article-13.12.2001.en.html
[5] http://www.bundestux.de
[6] http://www.iprcommission.org/
[7] http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/anw-13.09.02-007/
[8] http://www.iprcommission.org/papers/text/final_report/chapter5htmfinal.htm
[9] http://www.ifross.de
[10] http://www.ifross.de/ifross_html/home1_2002.html#ARTIKEL01
[11] http://www.agnula.org
[12] http://fsfeurope.org/projects/agnula/
[13] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/fp6/recommendation.html
[14] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/fp6/focal.en.html
[15] http://fsfeurope.org/documents/fp6/focal.en.html
[16] http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/ist.htm
[17] http://fsfeurope.org/projects/fp6/
[18] http://fsfeurope.org
[19] http://fsfeurope.org/projects/fla/
[20] http://www.bridge-ideas.de
* Ongoing activities
Of course, besides these concrete projects there were other ongoing
activities in which the FSF Europe was active or provided assistance
or a platform to the activits in these areas.
Examples include work against the European equivalent of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the European Copyright Directive
(EUCD) [21]. This law -- which is currently transcribed into national
law -- provides legal measures for monopolies on file formats and
vendor lock-in, silent removal of fair use rights, massive reduction
of the freedom of speech and censorship.
Another area are software patents [22], in which lobby groups are
trying to seal up the market and divide up the shares for the
information society among themselves to make sure noone else will be
in a position to contribute. Consequently, this not only reduces
innovation and competition, they also provide means of enforcing
monopolies on file formats and vendor lock-in.
During the first general assembly of the FSF Europe, education was
identified as one of the most important areas for activity so young
people and students would have the chance of getting in touch with
knowledge instead of mere product schooling. Therefore the FSF Europe
started a Free Software in Education [23] working group.
Also, the FSF Europe was very happy to provide a home for the
Tux&GNU@School [24] column by Mario Fux, a column about educational
Free Software, under the roof of this working group.
On a less serious note, the the FSF Europe also wanted to uphold the
t-shirt tradition and not only provided the first European FSF shirts,
it also created the first girlie shirts with GPL preamble on the back
as well as the first GNU pins ever. [25]
[21] http://fsfeurope.org/projects/eucd/
[22] http://fsfeurope.org/projects/swpat/
[23] http://fsfeurope.org/projects/education/
[24] http://fsfeurope.org/projects/education/tgs/
[25] http://fsfeurope.org/order/
* Associates
One of the fundamentals of Free Software is that we do not stand
alone. And just like this is true for individuals, the FSF Europe also
believes in this with respect to organizations, which builds the basis
of the associate organization [26] status.
Current associates are
AFFS, UK [27]
ANSOL, Portugal [28]
APRIL, France [29]
AsSoLi, Italy [30]
FFII, Germany [31]
FFS, Austria [32]
FSIJ, Japan [33]
OFSET, France [34]
The members of these organizations can get directly involved in all
FSF Europe activities and without them, a lot of the work would not
have been possible.
If you wish to become involved in the FSF Europe, joining one of the
existing associate organizations, making your organization an
associate or creating an associate organization is definitely the most
efficient way.
[26] http://fsfeurope.org/associates/
[27] http://www.affs.org.uk
[28] http://www.ansol.org
[29] http://www.april.org
[30] http://www.softwarelibero.it
[31] http://www.ffii.org
[32] http://www.ffs.or.at
[33] http://www.fsij.org
[34] http://www.ofset.org
* Shows/Talks
One of the most tedious, but very necessary tasks is to be present at
tradeshows, create and spread distribution material, talk to the
people and inform them about Free Software and the value of freedom in
speeches and podium discussions.
Some events and places where the FSF Europe has done this in the past
are
Asia OSS Symposium 2003, Phuket, Thailand
Associazione Industriali Brescia, Brescia, Italy
CECAM (European Center for Atomic and Molecular Computations), Lyon, France
CeBIT, Hanover, Germany
DANTE (German TeX Users Association) 2003 Conference, Bremen, Germany
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium
Free Software Symposium 2002, Tokyo, Japan
GNU/Linux Seminar at the Sheffield Wednesday football stadium, Sheffield, UK
IFA, Berlin, Germany
IST Infoday "Open Platforms", Brussels, Belgium
Information Society Technologies (IST) Conference & Expo, Copenhagen, Denmark
Libre Software Meeting, Bordeaux, France
Linux Infotage, Berlin, Germany
Linux@work, Frankfurt, Germany
LinuxDay, Bolzano and Milano, Italy
LinuxExpo, Paris, France
LinuxTag, Stuttgart & Karlsruhe, Germany
LinuxWorldExpo, Milano, Italy
Parliamentary Evening, Berlin, Germany
Systems, Munich, Germany
ThinkAbout-IT, Rostock, Germany
Transmediale, Berlin, Germany
Universita` di Bari, Politecnico, Bari, Italy
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Webbit, Padova, Italy
Wizards of OS, Berlin, Germany
Workshop "Free Software and Multimedia," Centro Tempo Reale, Florence, Italy
egovos.org, Washington, U.S.A.
hiroshima mon amour cultural center, Torino, Italy
* Outlook
For the next years, there is still a lot of work ahead of us.
We are currently awaiting the outcome of the evaluation for the "GNU
Coordination Action Network" (GNUCAN) which was filed for the first
call of the FP6 IST program. Also there are plans to start working on
a "Free Software for a Mobile World" (GNUBILE) proposal.
In order to firmly root Free Software in society and make sure that it
is here to stay, we also need to further it in the business field. Our
hope is that we will soon find the time and resources to work on the
GNU Business Network, which will set out to do that.
As the proprietary software companies have increased their spendings
on lobbying against Free Software to preserve their monopolies, we
also need to intensify our political work.
One of the events where this will be necessary is the "World Summit on
the Information Society" (WSIS) [35] at the end of 2003. The
preparation is already in full progress and the FSF Europe has for
instance major support by other German civil societies to represent
the German civil society movement in this process, but we will need to
intensify our efforts.
And of course we hope to get more countries officially and
inofficially involved in the FSF Europe. This does require significant
work by the local activitists, but we are optimistic that more
countries will participate soon.
Finally, we would like to thank all of you who have supported us in
the past -- without you to stand at tradeshow booths, talk to the
people, translate documents, make contacts, ask companies to donate or
donate yourself, we could not have done as much as we did!
And if you haven't supported us yet but would like to do so,
information about this can be found online. [36] [27]
[35] http://www.itu.int/wsis/
[36] http://fsfeurope.org/help/
[37] http://fsfeurope.org/help/donate.html
discussion-request(a)fsfeurope.org wrote:
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>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Today's Topics:
>
> 1. RMS doctor honoris causa at the Free University of Brussels
> (Wouter Vanden Hove)
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject:
> RMS doctor honoris causa at the Free University of Brussels
> From:
> Wouter Vanden Hove <wouter.vanden.hove(a)pandora.be>
> Date:
> 22 Jun 2003 21:39:38 +0200
> To:
> fsf <discussion(a)fsfeurope.org>
>
>
>I just read in a flemish newspaper that Richard Stallman will be
>receiving an honorary doctorate at the end of the year from the free
>University of Brussels (VUB), together with Hans Blix and Noam Chomsky,
>and some others.
>
This is fantastic news!
>
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>_______________________________________________
>Discussion mailing list
>Discussion(a)fsfeurope.org
>https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
>
>
I just read in a flemish newspaper that Richard Stallman will be
receiving an honorary doctorate at the end of the year from the free
University of Brussels (VUB), together with Hans Blix and Noam Chomsky,
and some others.
(From Software Patents list)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Patents] Form for demonstrating opposition to software patents
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2003 12:10:14 +0100
From: Alex Macfie <alex(a)cgce.net>
To: patents <patents(a)aful.org>
As you know, the plenary debate in the European Parliament on whether
Software Patents are to be permitted in the EU is likely to take place
starting on the 30th of June, giving us just a few days to demonstrate the
strength of feeling over the damage that could be done to innovation and
competition in the European software industry if software patents are
permitted.
The form at http://freenetproject.org/eusp/index.php, designed by Ian Clarke
of FreenetProject http://www.freenetproject.org/, presents small to medium
sized software development firms with an opportunity to express their
concern over this issue. This will be distributed to MEPs to make them aware
of how SMEs feel about the issue.
"Ian Clarke" <ian(a)freenetproject.org>
James Heald <j.heald(a)ucl.ac.uk>,
Alex Hudson <home(a)alexhudson.com>,
Nick Hill <nick(a)nickhill.co.uk>,
Richard Clark <richard(a)elysium.demon.co.uk>,
Alex Macfie <alex(a)cgce.net>
Alex Macfie www.cgce.net alex(a)cgce.net
Trewarren, Llanddewi Rhydderch, Abergavenny, Gwent NP7 9UT
"The exclusive right to invention [is] given not of natural right,
but for the benefit of society." -- Thomas Jefferson
(Forwarded from Software Patents list. Hartmut is pitching for volunteers.
Let's take off with this. -- Seth)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Patents] howto help immunise the media
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 20:06:21 +0200 (CEST)
From: Hartmut Pilch <phm(a)a2e.de>
To: patents(a)aful.org
Also, we need as exact as possible a transcript of the monday jury session.
McCarthy, Rothley and a few others made statements which we need make
quotable for journalists. We only have Rothley ready so far.
Those who want to talk to journalists can send a short text based on the
following template. If you need further help in reaching out to the media
or want to supply others with media contacts (even phone numbers gathered
from websites), please write to
media at ffii org
When first contacting a journal and you don't have any good text yourself,
use something like the following:
--------------------------
Dear Sir
On June 30th a far reaching decision is scheduled to be taken at the
European Parliament. Europe stands to lose much of its freedom and
productivity to a small but highly active group of owners of illegal
patents. The press release which you find below/attached explains you the
details. They are quite different from what leading politicians will tell
you. Since few poeple understand questions of software and patents,
misinformation campaigns in this field pay off. But so does writing of
well-researched articles. We are trying to put all the materials at your
fingertip at
http://swpat.ffii.org/
Please mail to us or to media at ffii org if you need further assistance.
Yours sincerely
<!--#include signature.txt -->
<!--#exec lynx -dump http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/juri0317/ -->
-------------
Also call the people by phone a few hours after having sent the this text
and try to find out who might be interested and send this info to media at
ffii org.
If you have some experience in the swpat case or in media work, you can also
be one of the coaches at media at ffii org. We need people to volunteer
with this. After some initial trials, we may procede to mobilise our
supporters more systematically.
To write instructions or usable pieces, use your own website or a wiki, such
as
http://swpatwiki.ffii.org/
or the swpat section on
http://wiki.ael.be/
as much as possible.
I also need help with documentation
At
http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/juri0304/
you find some of the details (e.g. how many for, how many against each
amendment) I obtained from the protocols of the sound recordings pointed to
at
http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/juri0617/
but these are far from complete.
It would be particularly helpful to know how many (and possibly) who
supported COMP-1 (compromise amendment 1).
The recordings contain some speeches from which we need to supply exact
quotes to journalists. Protocols of this would be extremely helpful. I
don't have an mp3/ogg system and many other people either don't or won't
take the time to use it.
--
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance tel. +49-89-18979927
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation http://swpat.ffii.org/
145,000 votes 400 firms against software patents http://noepatents.org/
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Patents] eWeek editorial
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 21:05:23 +0100
From: James Heald <j.heald(a)ucl.ac.uk>
Reply-To: j.heald(a)ucl.ac.uk
To: patents(a)aful.org
The editorial in eWeek this week is fairly strongly anti-swpat, quoting
Gerald Cohen, veteran head of I-Builders in New York:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1122081,00.asp
Opinion
June 9, 2003
Patent Progress
There's a reason for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It was created to
foster invention by rewarding inventors for their time and trouble by
granting temporary monopoly protection for the fruits of their labor. The
net result is a benefit to society: Rewarding inventors tends to bring about
more invention and economic productivity.
Because patent applications mandate disclosure, the patent process has
social advantages over trade-secret alternatives. However, if a given law or
enforcement pattern of a lawincluding patent lawresults in harm to
society, then it's time to change the laws. Patents on software carry the
potential of harm to the software industry and thereby to the economy.
Equally problematic are the so-called method patents, or patents on
application behavior, such as Amazon's famousor infamousone-click patent.
How dangerous are software patents? Information Builders President and CEO
Gerald Cohen warned eWEEK editors that the presence of patents is a scourge
to the industry. Cohen has seen much innovation in a patent-free climate.
Now he and other software leaders are being threatened with lawsuits.
Software companies need to create software, which, after all, often has a
short shelf life. They do not need to spend precious resources hiring
expensive attorneys. Copyright protection should be enough. A copyright
protects original expression; its existence encourages software developers
to seek new ways of presenting function to users and of streamlining
integration behind the scenes.
If patents for software are generally not a good idea, patents are out of
bounds when it comes to standard protocols, such as those that underpin the
World Wide Web. Keeping the Web patent-free prevents it from becoming a
hunting ground for those seeking royalties on some of the most widely used
software.
There are encouraging developments, however. The World Wide Web Consortium's
forthright stand on the issue sets an excellent example. The W3C's intent
has been known for a while, but only last month did the organization issue a
formal policy statement banning patented technologies from its standards.
In addition, some unjustified patents have been thrown out. For example,
British Telecom claimed every organization using Web hyperlinks would need
to license a patent the U.S. PTO issued it in 1989. Last year, it lost its
test lawsuit against Prodigy Communications when U.S. District Judge Colleen
McMahon ruled that the patent didn't apply to hyperlinks. In addition, three
patents covering client/server computing as a whole were ruled invalid by
the courts in mid-2002 because the technology described was in public use
before the patent application was filed.
Thus, there are signs that a rational approach to software patents is
gaining momentum. Still, the PTO needs to do more to raise the bar for
software patents. If they are to be granted, software patents ought to be
extremely rare indeed.
************************************************************************
* PLEASE DIFFUSE *
* APOLOGIES FOR MULTIPLE POSTINGS *
************************************************************************
Announcing:
The Joint AGNULA-PlanetCCRMA
BYOL-0.1 (Bring Your Own Laptop) Workshop 2003
July 3 to July 6, Prato (Florence) Italy:
Tempo Reale Ricerca, the Department of Research of the Centro Tempo
Reale, is offering the first Bring Your Own Laptop workshop, that will
be held in Prato (Florence) in collaboration with The Center for Computer
Research in Music & Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University and the
Prato Linux User Group (PLUG).
The workshop will end on July 6 with a concert in collaboration with:
CCRMA, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford
University;
NYU, New York University;
DIST, Universita' di Genova
The workshop will focus on Free Software in Computer Music:viability
and usability of currently available GNU/Linux audio software.
The most recent version of PLANET CCRMA and AGNULA project, DeMuDi &
RehMuDI, will be presented during the BYOL.
The participation to the workshop is free. A limited number of
participants will be accepted, due to the non infinite capacity of the
hall (50 participants maximum at this moment), and therefore an online
registration is required.
The workshop includes morning presentations and laboratory in the
afternoon, using your own laptop.
Special guests are invited to give presentation.
Abramo Bagnara: Alsa project Team
Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen: Kungl Tekniska Högskolan (KTH), Music Acoustics
Group,Stockholm
Roger Dannenberg: Carnegie Mellon University
François Dechelle, Patrice Tisserand: IRCAM (Institut de Recherche
et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), Paris
Guenter Geiger: Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Nicola Bernardini, Dave Phillips e Marco Trevisani:
Tempo Reale Ricerca
Ron Kuivila: Wesleyan University
Nguyen Ngoc Can: Red Hat / RehMuDi AGNULA
Fernando Lopez-Lezcano: Planet CCRMA, Stanford University
You can find the complete list of guests soon in the BYOL web page:
http://byol.agnula.org
For further information please contact us at:
marco(a)centrotemporeale.it
or subscribe the mailing list
byol(a)agnula.org
for web subscription:
http://lists.agnula.org/mailman/listinfo/byol
Check our web page for more detailed information and updated news:
http://byol.agnula.org
This Workshop is part of the dissemination plan of the AGNULA project
(IST-2001-34879), whose partners are:
TRR, Tempo Reale Ricerca
IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), Paris
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Music Technology Group, Barcelona
Kungl Tekniska Högskolan (KTH), Music Acoustics Group, Stockholm
Free Software Foundation Europe
Red Hat France
--
The AGNULA Project (IST-34879)
http://www.agnula.org
info(a)agnula.org
Neither MS-Word nor MS-PowerPoint attachments please.
Just read the LWN article about Ximians Desktop2
http://lwn.net/Articles/34940/
You can learn that they install proprietary software like
a pdf and a flash plug-in with their redcarpet service.
Most disturbing is that they changed the standard save format
for Openoffice to be a propietory format,
not helping http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html at all.
This is even bad for the companies that desktop is targetted at
and we should get the word out to this companies
that using proprietary data format is really dangerous for them.