[Fsfe-ie] patents letter stuff

Ciaran O'Riordan ciaran at member.fsf.org
Thu Jan 15 02:13:05 CET 2004


Fergal Daly writes:
> http://quote.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates
> "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's 
> ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a 
> complete standstill today."
> 
> Source: "Challenges and Strategy" memo dated May 16, 1991.

I'd like to include it, but citing a leaked memo seems a bit, I don't
know, amateur/unreliable/unprovable/something.  IFSO only gets to send
one letter (per month anyway), so I wouldn't like to give them any cause
to discredit this one.

Also, Harney is probably an MS fan since they provide 300(?) jobs in
Ireland.  Rather than pointing out the evil of BillyG, we have to point
out the negative affect that swpats would have on small/medium biz, new
job creation, technological progress, and competition.

I wouldn't mind citing the memo if I could point to another credible
source that cites it (like the FTC report), but it's probably no
coincidence that politically credible stuff doesn't cite leaked memos.
(I don't know, I'm an amateur really, just trying to guess pitfalls and
being careful since it's not my home terrain.)

I'm thinking of including some pages from the FTC report in the envelope
with the letter, and will highlight a few good bits.  FTC URL:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/10/innovationrpt.pdf

I'll try to post a draft of the letter on Friday.

-- 
Ciaran O'Riordan - http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/


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