FSFE-IE June 2004

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Linux alliance fights against Euro software patents | The Register
by Barry Mahon 26 Jun '04

26 Jun '04

Item from the Register updating the situation and reporting on the EuroLinux Alliance plans to fight sw patents. <URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/21/five_years_patent/ > Bye, Barry

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IP high on EU-US pre-summit agenda, Adare Co Clare
by teresahackett＠eircom.net 25 Jun '04

25 Jun '04

Mary Harney was interviewed on the RTE News at One this afternoon about the pre EU-US summit taking place this afternoon with the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue. Attendees will include Don Evans, US Secretary for Commerce. According to MH: -the agenda is around world trade, regulation, piracy, intellectual property; -it will feed into the outcome of the summit tomorrow; -it will agree on processes to resolve regulatory difficulties that hamper business; -counterfeiting accounts for 7% of global trade; -EU and US must work together on enforcement regimes; -important because of the high inter-dependance of the EU-US economices, etc. You can hear the interview at: http://www.rte.ie/rams/radio/news1pm.ram, otherwise go to archive. The TABD report to the summit is entitled "Establishing a Barrier-Free Transatlantic Market: Principles and Recommnedations". http://www.tabd.com/ The Presidency press release for the summit includes the lines: "Delegates will discuss the implications for transatlantic trade of new US and EU anti-terrorist security controls, Intellectual Property Rights and the fight against Counterfeiting." http://www.eu2004.ie/templates/news.asp?sNavlocator=66&list_id=882 Teresa _________________________________________________________________ Surf for free all summer long with eircom broadband.* Order Now: http://home.eircom.net/broadbandoffer

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When Think Tanks Attack
by teresahackett＠eircom.net 23 Jun '04

23 Jun '04

Forwarded Ian Brown, edri-ip list Teresa ------------ When Think Tanks Attack Tim Lambert, 23 June 2004 "The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution is only one of a dozen different think tanks that have attacked Open Source. Why are all these think tanks so down on Open Source? Well, the Small Business Survival Committee is concerned that using open source will expose small business to the risk of lawsuits. Citizens Against Government Waste is concerned that the government might waste money on Open Source. Defenders of Property Rights is concerned that Open Source might be a threat to intellectual property rights. However, I was able to detect a common theme to all their criticism. They all seem to be funded by Microsoft..." http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~lambert/blog/computers/tanks.html _________________________________________________________________ Surf for free all summer long with eircom broadband.* Order Now: http://home.eircom.net/broadbandoffer

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good letter on Council text
by Ciaran O'Riordan 23 Jun '04

23 Jun '04

There's a great letter from FFII NL about the Council text at: http://kwiki.ffii.org/?NlGovLttrResp0422En It doesn't give any insight into whether or not the Dutch Parliament is really thinking of revoking the Council's text, but it's a thorough, understandable explanation of the problems with the Council's text. (I'll be robbing some for ifso.ie/projects/swpats.html sometime.) -- Ciarán O'Riordan http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/ Free Software in Ireland: http://ifso.ie

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Dutch revoking their swpat vote
by jm＠jmason.org 23 Jun '04

23 Jun '04

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20040620104329294 EU Patents - It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over Tuesday, June 22 2004 @ 06:19 AM EDT If you thought the EU patent story was a done deal, I suggest you read [37]this account by Arend Lammertink on his efforts to turn things around in the Netherlands, which may result in the Dutch Parliament revoking its vote approving the patent directive. Lammertink holds a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Twente and works as a Software Engineer for dGB Earth Sciences that specializes in quantitative seismic interpretation software and services. OpendTect, one of the company's products, is "the world's first open source seismic interpretation system". He writes: "Seemed as good as lost. But it ain't over yet. We've played our cards (and luck!) quite nicely here in The Netherlands (if I may say so myself) and at this moment the Dutch Parliament is actually considering to revoke the vote Minister Brinkhorst gave at the Council. This has never happened before in the history of the European Union!. . . . "The Dutch parliament will make a final decision about the position the Minister will take in September. A debate about this issue will take place at Thursday, the 24th of June, 19:45-20:45 CET. Also see the official agenda of the Commission for Economic Affairs. They may also decide to require the European Presidency to open a new voting procedure, which would completely reopen the case for all member states . . . "Remember, all European countries can legally revoke their vote if they want to and they have the power to require the European Presidency to open a new voting procedure, which would completely reopen the case for all member states." A preliminary report by several Spanish experts on European procedural law, under the coordination of Dr. Luis Fajardo Lopez, [38]confirms that the votes can be changed: "There are legal ways to change the position adopted on May the 18th meeting. In other words, at this procedural moment there is no legal obstacles to reversing the political agreement on common positions, neither to adopt a new probably more balanced political compromise." The article is full of references, including to this 1998 [39]article that claims in the past the BSA sued companies and agencies that couldn't prove ownership of their software, Microsoft's and that of others, and then settled on terms that the company from that day forward use only Microsoft software, a charge Microsoft denied. Novell, however, said the sweetheart deals that left Novell out in the cold did happen that way: "In 1995 Antel, the national telephone company of Uruguay, was caught pirating $100,000 worth of unlicensed software programs from Microsoft, Novell, and Symantec. Antel was nabbed by the Business Software Alliance, a trade association that partly acts as a global bounty hunter for the software industry. The BSA's lawyers in Uruguay quickly filed suit. "But instead of waiting for a ruling on the case, the BSA abruptly dropped the suit in the fall of 1997. The BSA receives funding from most of the top software companies but appears to be most heavily funded by Microsoft. And, according to Antel's information technology manager, Ricardo Tascenho, the company settled the matter by signing a 'special agreement' with Microsoft to replace all of its software with Microsoft products. . . . "Felipe Yungman, Novell's manager of security for Argentina, says he and another staffer at Novell discovered, while pursuing their own investigation for the company, that the BSA was setting up sweetheart deals for Microsoft. 'Companies or government offices had to, as a condition [that the BSA] forgive them of piracy, replace Novell products with Microsoft products,' he says." In [40]an interview with Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, he first praises his company for all the R & D they do, and then indicates they intend to be paid back for it by using their patents: "Since Microsoft went public in 1986, we have invested a total of $36 billion in R&D, creating a wide range of integrated technologies that have helped customers and developers do more. Over the next 6 years alone, we will invest another $40 billion in innovation, continuing to make us a top R&D spender in any industry. Specifically, our focus is on integrated innovation, making our products and services work together and understanding how customers use technology and information to improve their lives. No other company in our industry is focused on this kind of innovation. We also are filing for 2,000 patents a year, a number we expect to increase in the years ahead." What does a company need 2,000 patents a year for? Maybe to supplement the BSA's alleged activities? Maybe they realize their days are numbered as a software vendor, that FOSS is the future. If they can't muscle us into using their software, perhaps they can force us to pay a toll for using whatever we prefer. Wait a sec. Isn't that SCO's impossible dream? Or maybe they'll just use patents to sue FOSS out of the market as Plan B? No doubt they will daintily use others, like patent pool companies that have little to lose, to do their fighting for them. Say, is that legal for a monopoly to do? To use their power and assets to gang up on the competition and make it impossible to compete? The EU patent decision will play a role in what happens to free and open source software's ability to compete. It's very odd to me that governments, many of which have announced that they intend to switch to GNU/Linux, don't connect the dots and comprehend that there is a connection between having that choice and patent decisions they make. It does seem that there was a measure of confusion in the minds of those voting, and that at least some thought they were voting to curtail software patents. Perhaps they should read this article,[41]"Why Europe Should Be Wary of Software Patents," by Brian Kahin, who is a visiting professor in the School of Information, Ford School of Public Policy, and Department of Communication Studies, at the University of Michigan. He was formerly Senior Policy Analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where he was responsible for the intellectual property and digital economy issues: "Large companies amass portfolios for strategic purposes: cross-licensing, blocking, deterrence, and revenue generation. . . .While patents facilitate niche entry by small companies, patent portfolios disadvantage small companies seeking to enter markets for complex products. They have little to trade, but they need a lot of licences. But how many, and from whom? As Robert Barr of Cisco testified at a FTC roundtable: 'There are too many patents to be able to even locate which ones are problematic. I used to say only IBM does clearance ... but IBM tells me even they don't do clearance searches anymore.' . . . "As last month's Managing Intellectual Property interview with Marshall Phelps, the architect of IBM's licensing programme, shows, Microsoft wants to start earning returns from its massive portfolio. After all, why shouldn't users pay innovators? Why shouldn't today's developers pay tribute to the R&D investments of the past 20 years? Why should European developers, small, medium, open source, or otherwise, get a free ride on Microsoft and IBM? "This might be a reasonable argument if developers actually learned anything from these massive portfolios, but from most accounts nobody reads software patents. Programmers don't use reference manuals, patents are not written to convey knowledge beyond the bare minimum needed to fulfil legal requirements, and lawyers advise against reading patents because of the risk of wilful infringement. . . . "According to an AIPLA economic report, when the amount in a controversy is under $1 million the average cost per side is half a million (2003), not including staff time and opportunity costs. Licence fees of $10,000 look pretty good compared to the costs of contesting patents. "On the other hand, licence fees of $10,000 or even $100 kill the open source model of software distribution." So, that's the game. Remember all the criticism of Linus which SCO heaped on him for saying he didn't do patent searches? Now you know the rest of the story. Nobody does them. Many of you may be planning to attend LinuxTag next week. If so, perhaps you may be interested in the following information from Jan Wildeboer, which he asked me to relay to you: Next week the LinuxTag will take place, Europe's biggest Linux event. Software patents will be a major theme, of course, now that we may have to face complete patentability ([42]http://swpat.ffii.org). Many people will wear the following T-Shirt: [43]http://dhcp42.de/ltag/index.html FFII ([44]http://www.ffii.org), mySQL, FSF-Europe etc. will hold a demonstration against software patents in Europe at Thursday, 24. June starting at 6:00 pm. We will have 10 "programmers in chains" - they will wear prisoners costumes with patent numbers on them. This is meant to ... inform of what is about to happen. More information here: [45]http://kwiki.ffii.org/DemoKarlsruhe04En Banners here: [46]http://dhcp42.de/ltag/index2.html Media contact: jw at domainfactory.de You may also find this [47]FFII press release of interest, because it also indicates that the deal isn't yet firm, and that there are efforts to reinstate the amendments that were dropped in May: "It is not yet certain that the Irish Presidency has secured a real majority. To re-instate amendments in the European parliament requires absolute majorities. This is achievable: many of the amendments did achieve this level of support in the first reading. But some of the votes are likely to be very close." The press release says that it was Germany that did not stand firm, by the way, and was instrumental in getting the draft compromise passed. .... References Visible links 37. http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=7442&page=1 38. http://www.vrijschrift.nl/Members/arend/Fajardo-Lopez-Law-Office_Preliminar… 39. http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1998/01/burstein.html 40. http://www.activewin.com/interviews/microsoft/36.shtml 41. http://www.si.umich.edu/~kahin/mip.html 42. http://swpat.ffii.org/ 43. http://dhcp42.de/ltag/index.html 44. http://www.ffii.org/ 45. http://kwiki.ffii.org/DemoKarlsruhe04En 46. http://dhcp42.de/ltag/index2.html 47. http://swpat.ffii.org/log/04/cons0518/index.en.html

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EFF and patents (fwd)
by Justin Mason 23 Jun '04

23 Jun '04

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Some good news from the EFF regarding their stance on software patenting; 'EFF completely supports the anti-swpat efforts in the EU.' The Brad Templeton quote is not representing EFF's official line. - --j. - ------- Forwarded Message Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 18:34:11 -0700 From: Jason Schultz <jason(a)eff.org> To: jm(a)jmason.org (Justin Mason) Subject: Re: EFF and patents (fwd Re: [Fsfe-ie] EFF Project) Hey Justin, Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. EFF completely supports the anti-swpat efforts in the EU. We believe that the software patent system has been a miserable failure for innovation and competition here in the U.S. This is even more true for so-called business methods. We wouldn't recommend anyone else go down these roads any time soon. As for Brad's comment, its more his position personally than ours officially. If people want our official position, tell them they're free to contact me directly and I can answer any questions. You can also forward any part of this message along to others to explain where EFF is on this issue. Also, to be clear, our new patent busting initiative isn't meant to reform the whole patent system or take on software and business-method patents as a class. Rather, it's targeted at helping individuals, non-profits and small businesses who are threatened by bogus patents and can't afford lawyers fight back against those who are threatening them. Hope that helps. It was good chatting with you. Hope to run into you again at another con. - - Jason -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Exmh CVS iD8DBQFA2OGWQTcbUG5Y7woRAhwmAKDB/Nj4Vmj0+21KchCN/fj7RwMPuwCgnXEk YgxPek8/pNgo1QDndvbuKwY= =lk+U -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Apropos, Joyce & Copyright
by Barry Mahon 20 Jun '04

20 Jun '04

Apropos the recent comments on the extension to the rights to cover the Nat. Lib. Expo. If you go to the exhib, or at least when I did, you get a 'lecture' before entering to say that all the material is covered by copyright and no photos, etc., are permitted NOR is taking notes........!! How about that for an extension of powers.... Apropos the RDS event, is herself who brow beat the Member States on software patenting going to turn up?? If so can she be doorstepped - a good opporunity as the media is hot on the divisions between the PDs and FF.....complaints that the coalition is driven by PD ideolgy, FF wanting be appear to be sympathetic to the small man..... Bye, Barry

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Re: [Fsfe-ie] Copyright Developments
by teresahackett＠eircom.net 19 Jun '04

19 Jun '04

That's right. The material would be out of copyright if we still had 50yrs, but the 70yrs means it's still in force. According to the press, in previous years, RTE had to cancel Joyce readings and the Abbey Theatre had to cancel a performance for the same reason. We can only use it to strengthen our case. th > > Yep, that sounds like it was pretty hilarious. I blogged (ugh) it at > http://taint.org/2004/06/16/233425a.html as follows: > > Reportedly, the Dail even had to pass emergency legislation last week to > prevent an exhibition at Dublin's National Library from being sued by > the Joyce Estate: > > The threat to the exhibition has been caused by the 2000 Copyright > Act which creates a doubt about its ability to display manuscripts > bought by the State because the Joyce estate still holds copyright. > > Hilarious. Recent overzealous copyright extension legislation snares > governments too! But they get to rewrite the laws in emergency session > to fix it ;) > > - --j. > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) > Comment: Exmh CVS > > iD8DBQFA1JzkQTcbUG5Y7woRArO8AKC/Zhyd7Suor3IVNUHraRJK0THiRwCfVH8x > yGsZsFmIp2RFFRlyyCUr4/o= > =Kyvf > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > ---------- Teresa Hackett 114 Cedar House Mespil Estate, Sussex Road Dublin 4, Ireland Email: teresahackett(a)eircom.net Mobile +353 87 6253768 ---------- _________________________________________________________________ Surf for free all summer long with eircom broadband.* Order Now: http://home.eircom.net/broadbandoffer

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Re: [Fsfe-ie] Copyright Developments
by teresahackett＠eircom.net 19 Jun '04

19 Jun '04

The conference is by invitation only, so not sure how strict their door policy will be ;-) I think tomorrow is a reception, the conference proper starts Monday. I know some speakers and will get feedback. I'm a bit puzzled about the proposed Notice of Seizure Order. This is basically the Anton Piller order, an injunction which we've already got in Ireland and which was put on a statutory footing by the IP enforcement directive (Art 6 evidence and Art 11 injunctions). But AP orders and the directive both require court orders before this private type of search warrant is granted, whereas this only seems to call for "the statutory authority for the seizure". If that's really what's being proposed, that's bad. BTW, according to the press, the other amendment to the copyright right (below) results from a threat by the estate of James Joyce to a big exhibition just opened by the National Library of Ireland to celebrate Bloomsday. "Copyright and Related Rights (Amendment) Act 2004 The Copyright and Related Rights (Amendment) Act 2004 amends Section 40 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 to provide that, for the avoidance of doubt, no infringement of any right created by the relevant Part in relation to an artistic or literary work occurs by reason of the placing on display the work, or a copy thereof, in a place or premises to which members of the public have access." Teresa > > Hi All, > > Walking past the RDS today I noticed a sign for "Copyright for > Creativity in the Enlarged European Union: Profile, Perception, > Awareness" on June 20-22. This is an EU presidency event. There will be > debate on rights management, WIPO, etc. More information on the entemp > website: > http://www.entemp.ie/science/ipr/work.htm > I'll see if I can pop in tomorrow, but don't expect to have time on > Monday or Tuesday. > > While I was there I noticed some disturbing Orders in the works: > > Copyright and Related Rights (Notice of Seizure) Order 2004 > > This allows a copyright holder (or rather someone claiming to be a > copyright holder!) to seize allegedly illegal copies, illicit recordings > or protection-defeating devices. Apparently the claimant simply has to > notify the Garda that he is going to make a seizure, and the victim must > then apply to the district court for his property to be returned. > > This has many problems: the victim is assumed to be guilty; it > effectively puts the law into the hands of the copyright claimant; and > there's a great chance of "denial of service", i.e. making a seizure > under this Order just to make things difficult for the victim. As far as > I can see, at least within the order itself, there is no way to deal > with abusive seizures. > > The next one is: > > Copyright and Related Rights (Notify and Take Down) Order 2004 > > This is has similarities with the Order above, and with the DMCA > takedown stuff. Again a copyright claimant can get an ISP or other > facilitator to remove allegedly illegal copies or illicit recordings. > Again (it appears to me) the facilitator and victim are assumed guilty > and must prove their innocence. > > I'll have a go drafting a response for the IPU of Entemp, but others > with more experience please have a look and give your opinions. > > The drafts of these Orders are also available from > http://www.entemp.ie/science/ipr/work.htm > > Regards, > > David > > _______________________________________________ > fsfe-ie(a)fsfeurope.org mailing list > List information: http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/fsfe-ie > Public archive: https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-ie > ---------- Teresa Hackett 114 Cedar House Mespil Estate, Sussex Road Dublin 4, Ireland Email: teresahackett(a)eircom.net Mobile +353 87 6253768 ---------- _________________________________________________________________ Surf for free all summer long with eircom broadband.* Order Now: http://home.eircom.net/broadbandoffer

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19 Jun '04

Hi All, Walking past the RDS today I noticed a sign for "Copyright for Creativity in the Enlarged European Union: Profile, Perception, Awareness" on June 20-22. This is an EU presidency event. There will be debate on rights management, WIPO, etc. More information on the entemp website: http://www.entemp.ie/science/ipr/work.htm I'll see if I can pop in tomorrow, but don't expect to have time on Monday or Tuesday. While I was there I noticed some disturbing Orders in the works: Copyright and Related Rights (Notice of Seizure) Order 2004 This allows a copyright holder (or rather someone claiming to be a copyright holder!) to seize allegedly illegal copies, illicit recordings or protection-defeating devices. Apparently the claimant simply has to notify the Garda that he is going to make a seizure, and the victim must then apply to the district court for his property to be returned. This has many problems: the victim is assumed to be guilty; it effectively puts the law into the hands of the copyright claimant; and there's a great chance of "denial of service", i.e. making a seizure under this Order just to make things difficult for the victim. As far as I can see, at least within the order itself, there is no way to deal with abusive seizures. The next one is: Copyright and Related Rights (Notify and Take Down) Order 2004 This is has similarities with the Order above, and with the DMCA takedown stuff. Again a copyright claimant can get an ISP or other facilitator to remove allegedly illegal copies or illicit recordings. Again (it appears to me) the facilitator and victim are assumed guilty and must prove their innocence. I'll have a go drafting a response for the IPU of Entemp, but others with more experience please have a look and give your opinions. The drafts of these Orders are also available from http://www.entemp.ie/science/ipr/work.htm Regards, David

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FSFE-IE June 2004