Hi all,
I would normally not forward these kinds of emails, but given the importance
I'm making an new TooImportantException() now...
If you haven't taken notice yet of the Software Patent issue, now is the time
to do it. Software patents allow algorithms to be patented... however,
registring a patent costs roughly 10.000 euro... not sure how this number is
exactly composed, but in any case too expensive for most OpenSource projects,
like CDK, Jmol and JChemPaint.
So why is this so important to us? We don't need to patent our ideas, do we?
No, but consider this. Patent Agencies are normally very bad in identifying
prior art. Prior art makes it impossible to patent something. (Remember that
an Australian was able to patent the wheel a few year back!) So what will
happen is that big software companies (MS is not a likely example in our
field, but think of Accelerys, CamSoft, ... or just someone with a lot of
money who wants to start a cheminfo company) patent interesting algorithms,
possibly already used by CDK. Not necessarily intentionally, nor predicting
that it will happen in our case, but it may... these laws will be used for the
next few decades... The scaring situation might then rise that someone
patents an algorithm in CDK and then sue us... We don't have any money to
start a legal war, so settling would remain the only... meaning that CDK
would have to drop that specific algorithm, because we could not pay license
fees either... Because we don't have the money to go to court (the legal
war), we will have a *very, very, very* difficult time proving that the
patent should be nullified... (I hope I am making myself a bit clear here on
the problem)...
To appreciate how likely these things are, consider how many OS projects
have changed names because they would be sued otherwise by some company...
But changing a name is easy, finding a new algorithm is not.
Thus, therefor the forwarded message below on the protest next week... If the
EU approves next week about the new software patent rules, this will very
probably mean the end of many open source projects, possible
CDK/Jmol/JChemPaint too...
I may be a bit of a Nostradamus here, but look up discussions and you'll find
this story backed up by legal experts.
One of the suggestions is too put up a special website during this day.
How do we think about this idea? Will we make a special webpage for our
projects to be online that day, explaining the problem to visitors?
Egon
---------- Doorgestuurd bericht ----------
Subject: Software Patents: Help Us Win the Europarl Vote!
Date: vrijdag 22 augustus 2003 08:45
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
**CONFIDENTIAL**
Dear FFII/Eurolinux supporter[1],
The European Parliament is voting on September 1st on a proposal
which, while pretending to aim at restricting patentability, in
reality ensures that algorithms and business methods like Amazon One
Click Shopping indisputably become patentable inventions (and
indisputably pass the bogus requirement of "technical contribution in
the inventive step").
As past experience shows, it is possible for powerful lobbies to push
incredibly bad directives through the European Parliament. But it is
also possible to have them rejected. Everything depends on how well we
use last week of August.
Needed: You in Brussels Next Wednesday August 27th
We need your presence in Brussels on August. We will stage a
performance on Luxemburg Square and a small conference in the
Parliament.
see
Aug 27 Demonstrations against EU Software Patent Plans
http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/demo0819/index.en.html
AEL (Association Electronique Libre): Big Demo 27 Aug
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/BigDemo27aug
We encourage you to participate in this event and to join our lobby
team in the parliament before and after that date. You could also
contribute by arranging a meeting between your MEP and our team.
Beds will be available for free for those who particpate.
Needed: Your Website Blocked Next Wednesday August 27th
If the JURI proposal passes, important websites will be forced off the
Net in the near future. It would seem preferable to take them off the
Net now, as a demonstration, for a few days. Or, in a more gentle
manner, to hide the content behind a "Page Closed" screen of the
following kind:
see
Online Demonstration Against Software Patents
http://swpat.ffii.org/group/demo/index.en.html
Online Demo Partner Sites
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/OnlineDemoPartnersWebsites
You might consider hiding some or all pages at least on August 27th
and persuading your friends, especially those who administer
much-visited software download pages, to do likewise.
Needed: 8,000 eur for demo and lobbying expenses
In June and July, we have subsidised the work of a handful of
activists who spread the word within the European Parliament. We will
do more of this again starting on August 25th. For each activist we
pay the trip, a bed and breakfast plus around 50 eur per day.
In order to reach out to all 626 MEPs during the last week of August,
we need 10 knowledgable people from different nationalities to spend
that week in Brussels.
You can support the work of our lobbyists by calling your MEPs on your
own. We have arranged a series of helpdesks at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
... (one for every country)
where you can receive hints as to whom to talk to and what to say.
These again need to be staffed and paid.
The result of our concerted effort should be that fewer of McCarthy's
amendments and more of "ours" achieve a majority. This would, at the
very least, send the draft report back to the JURI committee and open
another round of negotiations there.
If you want to donate for this project, please use the keyword
'europarl'. If you want to restrict the use of the donation to a
particular country, specify europarl-uk or analogous.
Needed: 3,000 eur for lobbying the media
Arlene McCarthy and friends are concentrating great efforts on
spreading misinformation in the press. Influential journalists have
helped, sometimes against their better knowledge, to create the
impression that McCarthy is trying to restrict patentability. See the
documentation at
JURI votes for Fake Limits on Patentability
http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/juri0617/index.en.html
We have however also actively contacted media and produced a series of
press releases. It is largely due to this activity that a majority of
media, including some mainstream media such as Der Spiegel, Le Monde,
Lib�ration, The Guardian, S�ddeutsche Zeitung and others treated
McCarthy's proposal as what it is: an attempt to introduce US-style
unlimited patentability in Europe. Much of this happened because we
actively established contacts with the potentially interested
journalists and gained their confidence as a reliable source of
information.
We have however not yet succeded in finding our way into many radio
and television programs. This again could be changed with a concerted
and paid effort.
As with the Europarl work, the key helpers should not only directly
contact media themselves but also provide coaching for volunteers who
want to help. Again we are providing a series of helpdesk addresses
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
...
for this and to set people free to concentrate on this work.
Please consider either operating such a helpdesk or donating for it or
volunteering to support the work by taking on some media yourself.
The keyword for donations in this area is, as you might expect: media,
media-fr, media-nl, etc.
Needed: Advertisement in European Voice et al
Some MEPs have advised us to insert an advertisement into a newspaper
which is read by MEPs, such as European Voice, in the week before the
vote. This would cost around 10000 eur. It seems to have been
effective in the past.
This however seems a little too big at the moment. Only when the other
items have been financed will we plan actions at this level.
How to donate
The bank account for a donation is
IBAN[2]: DE78701500000031112097
Account Owner: FFII e.V.
More account info (redundant but asked for by some banks) at
http://www.eurolinux.org/
Keyword: europarl
Alternatively you can donate via paypal.com to paypal at ffii org.
FFII is acknowledged as a public-interest association and we can
send you a receipt that at least in Germany makes the donation
tax-deductible. We issue receipts for all donations of 50 eur or
more every 3 months.
Needed: Your response NOW
Please tick:
[ ] I would prefer to receive no more mail from you anymore.
[ ] I will be at the demo in Brussels Wednesday Aug 27th 12.00.
[ ] I would like to contribute to preparing the demo of Aug 27th 12.00
[ ] I will be at the conference in the EP on Aug 27th 14.00
[ ] I would like to speak at (one of) the event(s)
[ ] I want to participate in the lobbying team for at least 1/2 day
[ ] I want to participate in the lobbying team for at least 1 day
[ ] I want to participate in the lobbying team for at least 2 days
[ ] I need a place to sleep in BXL on Aug 26-27
[ ] I need a place to sleep in BXL on Aug 25-26
[ ] I need a place to sleep in BXL on Aug 27-28
[ ] I will contact MEP(s) and arrange for a meeting with the lobby team
[ ] I have followed or will follow the links listed at
http://swpat.ffii.org/events/2003/europarl/08/index.en.html and
made/make myself familiar with the various proposals which are under
discussion in the European Parliament.
[ ] I will participate in the online demo.
[ ] I will help bring the software patent issue into the media.
[ ] I'd like to help with graphic design of advertisements etc.
[ ] I'd like to help with translating.
[ ] I'd like to dedicate a few days or half-days next week to help.
[ ] I can provide some people with sleeping facilities in or near
Brussels. [ ] I will make a donation.
[ ] I represent
[ ] myself only
[ ] company xxxxxxx.com
[ ] organisation xxxxxxx.org
[ ] I'd like to have one or more t-shirts ("protect innovation from
software patents") or other demo-related articles sent to me.
If you have any questions, you can also ask by internet relay chat
(IRC) at irc.debian.org channel #bxl-ffii.
Thank you very much for your support!
_________________________________________________________________
Notes
[1] You have registered via
http://petition.eurolinux.org/
and thereby agreed that "your email may be used to confirm your
signature or to send to you information about future actions
strictly related to this petition." We exercise extreme
restraint in using this permission and this time may be the
last time. If you feel annoyed, please exercise some patience.
Most signatories do want this kind of notification and all have
implicitely agreed to it. There is no way at this late stage of
the petition action to redesign it so as to make it perfectly
spam-politically correct. Yet the notifications are not spam
and treating them as such would itself be a gross net abuse.
If it is important to you that you never receive any mail from us
again, please write to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
and we will do our best to remove you from the petition -- note
that this is not easy because we lack a secure way to do it
automatically.
If, on the contrary, you would like to hear more from us and be
in charge of how much you hear (in spam-politically correct
manner), we recommend you to register at the new participation
system
http://petition.ffii.org/eubsa/en/
If you are registered there already, you may be receiving our mail
twice this time. Again we beg for your patience and
understanding. Since different databases are used, eliminating
the doubles is not a trivial problem and not one which we can
afford to solve under the current time pressure.
[2] Using the IBAN, money can now be transferred between european
countries for the domestic fee, thanks to a recent EU directive
which citizens can enforce against banks.
--
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance tel. +49-89-18979927
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation http://swpat.ffii.org/
160,000 votes 2000 firms against software patents http://noepatents.org/
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