Hi All,
On Ciaran's suggestion I have signed up to this mailing list, and I just wanted to introduce myself. I have noticed that you guys seem to be one of the most coherent faces of the anti-patent movement.
I am the founder and coordinator of the Freenet Project, a reasonably well known free software project that has been around since 1999. I am also the CEO of a US-based software company, and am involved in a variety of other commercial projects. I am a native of Navan, Co. Meath, although I have been living in California for the past few years. I plan to move to Edinburgh, Scotland in early October.
The issue of software patents in the EU has been of great concern to me, not just as a free software developer, but as a software developer in general (I also develop non-free software). One of my reasons for leaving the US is the insane patent system here as it relates to software, clearly I don't want the EU to fall into the same trap. Back in June I contacted Avril Doyle, MEP for Leinster, to alert her to this issue - and it is my understanding that she has been supportive of the anti-patent movement since then.
Anyhoo, I just wanted to introduce myself and will try to follow developments and help in any way that I can.
Kind regards,
Ian.