At 12:44 PM 8/26/2003, Danny Angus wrote: >If anyone's counting a show of hands here I'm a European and +1 to opposing >software patents in Europe and +1 to the ASF supporting the demo.
I will say that I'm pleased the members were able to turn the ship so quickly to support the initiative, it shows exactly how far from lethargy our community is, even near the end of summer. I should point out though that ASF support of the protest is a bit odd. We are a US Delaware charitable corporation bound by (primarily) US law and patents (and US patent treaty obligations.) When the topic of US patent reform comes up (the insanity that has led to issues such as the .gif file format, SCO v.s. the world, etc) that we most carefully consider a position and reflect that in our activites. There are very stringent lobbing restrictions on the charitable corporation, but that does not mean we cannot have any positions (consider the various cancer foundations' support of anti-smoking efforts.) One thing I do not want from the foundation is a double standard applied to our positions on US v.s. Euro patents. Bill --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
