[Fsfe-ie] patents letter stuff

[Seth Johnson]

Point them to the public reaction when they found out about the W3c's plan
to allow patents:

> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment

Especially:

> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Oct
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Sept

Seth


Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
>   I'm still writing that patents letter, although I've overcommitted
> myself a bit recently so work is slow.  I have a draft, but it gets
> rewritten every time I look at it, so it's not yet at a stage where it
> would be useful to post it and ask for comments.
> 
> A request:
>   Can people find a few great technologies that *aren't* patented?
> 
> I'm thinking about SMS text messaging? is that patent-free?
> Does anyone know of other technologies that have really taken off?
> 
> so that we can say "look at how progress really happens"
> 
> It has to be stuff that a politician would know about.
> Telecommunications stuff is extra-brill since the big telecoms are
> pushing for patents, so it would be great if we could distinguish
> between what's good for one (foreign) company, and what's good for
> progress (or useful innovation).
> 
> I'll be looking into this myself, but I'm not very technology-aware.
> 
> Aidan Delaney previously mentioned Voice Over IP as an example.
> 
> Lasty (rushed mail), the FTC's patents report is brilliant, the software
> patents section starts on p153 (printed page 44) and is 13 pages long.
> The whole doc is 315 pages, but just reading the software section is
> very encouraging.
> 
> Ian provided a link to the FTC report in a recent post.
> 
> Stallman is quoted 16 times in the report!
> 
> --
> Ciaran O'Riordan - http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/
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