Capaigning against software patents
Jan Wildeboer
jan.wildeboer at gmx.de
Wed Dec 4 23:28:47 UTC 2002
Niall Douglas wrote:
> There are some very cheap ways to get accurate figures. One would be
> to send a short questionaire to software companies asking if they
> feel software patents will cost them (obviously you include
> documentation explaining them - preferably with a pro and con
> section).
>
> Obviously this would require some money for postage. It duplicates
> making them aware of the issue though, so it's well spent.
Why not contact them via email and provide some links? They are software
companies after all ...
A decent and well-written template could be a good result of this
interesting discussion.
A better way might be to get in contact with some respected journalists
from good IT-related magazines and convince them that it would be a good
thing to do and publish the results. Publicity is perhaps the most
important 'currency' to achieve results.
> Well I can be a bit direct sometimes. I don't mean to sound like I'm
> barking orders, but I was kinda hoping someone could say if the FSF
> is willing to provide some funds to make these ideas happen or are we
> completely broke?
I think it is unreasonable to ask the FSF for funds when on the other
hand the term Free Software should be avoided. It should be a broad
coalition of interested people, companies and NGO.
> Yeah that's a major problem. A lot of the software patents I've seen
> patent the idea with no regard to implementation eg; a communication
> medium between two information repositories - which could mean nearly
> anything.
Check www.youmaybenext.com to see yet another bunch of ridiculous and
extremely unspecific patents. Users of the Free Software project I am
prt of are actually facing legal threats from these. USA only for this
moment.
Just jumping in, with no real plan behind it. Take it with a grain of
salt. Though I am curious to organize/help on this issue as I am
personally endangered by these patents.
Jan Wildeboer
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