On Friday 03 Oct 2003 7:55 pm, Margot wrote: > > Well done John - so you've done UK East Midlands, I've done UK > South East - anyone here from other UK regions, or other EU > countries? > > Margot > OK - I decided to go for all 7 of them <g> This is what I have said:
<quote> It is with mounting alarm that I have read of the proposals to implement Software Patents. I would ask you to consider the following: Software is written by individuals and groups of individuals. As authors they normally have and retain copyright (except, I presume, where they are working for a company who would then own the copyright). Existing laws are adequate to protect their copyright. Patent law was, I understand, intended to protect inventors, requiring that the object to be patented was an original idea. It is common knowledge that 'prior art' generally precludes such a patent being granted. It is difficult to see how writing computer code can be classed as an original idea. Logically, if software were to be patentable, then so could a book. It is also a consideration that patents are expensive, create a great deal of administrative work, and are granted slowly and for a lengthy time period, while the life cycle of software is short. This would stifle creative work. The passing of software patent legislation would naturally benefit big business and penalise the small and medium-size enterprise, as there is no possibility of his competing in a legal argument. The ability of any enterprise to patent a method of presentation, a method of training, or a 'look' of software is not in the interest of the consumer. Certain large businesses in the field of operating systems desire to outlaw reverse engineering of their software. However, without this practice it is impossible for third party software and hardware drivers to be written without the co-operation of the originators. Like many others, I have suffered from finding that drivers for my hardware was unavailable, since the manufacturer of the hardware did not wish to co-operate with writers of my chosen operating system. It would appear that the proposals for EU legislation would have grave implications for the General Public License. It is a matter of grave concern that individuals would be denied the right to decide the conditions under which their work is released. The GPL gives clear rights and responsibilities to users of the software concerned. The original author owns copyright, but this is essentially a model of co-operative working. If yoiu are unfamiliar with the GPL, may I refer you to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html ? I ask your help in protecting our rights, as citizens of the European Union, to own our own work without hindrance, and to make our own decisions about the future of our work. Please protect us from the vested interests that seek to take away our rights. Anne Wilson </quote> I hope that Caroline will forgive the plagiarism in the fourth paragraph <g> For others that intend writing, I would just suggest that it is a good idea to append your address, or at least postcode, so that it is clear that you are from their constituency. Anne -- Registered Linux User No.293302 Have you visited http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org yet?
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