Hi Guys and Girls. I must admit, I'm guilty of not paying enough attention to the 'politics' behind the concepts of free software. I thought that since the European Parliment ruled against software patents that that was the end of the matter and that we didn't have to worry here in the UK.
I was shocked to learn that software patents are being granted in this country (high-court ruling recently on a specific matter) and in Europe (EPOrg still grants them against the ruling of European Parliament). I don't know a great deal about it, but it seems like a pretty bad idea. I read an article by Richard Stallman on how simple ideas can get patented: http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-05-26-004-04-OP-LF Anyway. I decided to get in touch with my European MPs to lobby them to do what they can to stop this. If anyone else feels like doing the same, feel free to use this as a template if you can't be bothered to write a letter from scratch. You can use www.writetothem.com to do it. Cheers Chris Dear Timothy Kirkhope, Edward McMillan-Scott, Linda McAvan, Godfrey Bloom, Diana Wallis and Richard Corbett, I am a user of free and open source software and I have recently been made aware of problems with the European software patent system. The European Patent Organisation (EPOrg) systematically grants patents on software and business methods against the letter and spirit of the written law and against the repeatedly expressed will of the European Parliament and several national parliaments (http://eupat.ffii.org/07/p2parl/) EPOrg is petitioning for a draft European Patent Litigation Agreement giving them more power. This would seem rather foolish given their disrespect of the wishes of the European Parliament. (http://eupat.ffii.org/07/p2parl/) I'm petitioning you to take a specific interest in this manner and help to ensure that software patents are not allowed to be granted in the UK. Software patents are harmful, stifle innovation and are generally used by unscrupulous companies to licence 'concepts' which are already widely used in the programming community. Please read this article for a more specific explanation. http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-05-26-004-04-OP-LF Yours sincerely, Chris Rowson 7aa0f3f2f1822ea0ac93/b6debbdced18828df130 (Signed with an electronic signature in accordance with subsection 7(3) of the Electronic Communications Act 2000.) -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
