[Fsfe-ie] EFF and patents (fwd)

[Justin Mason]

-----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 at eff.org>
To:      jm at 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-----