[dundee] Fwd: Open letter from Alan Cox

[Martin Habets]

I'm normally not much into politics, but here are some words from Alan Cox... 
Guess it's time to make up your minds.

Martin

PS: Is there a LUG meeting next monday? Any topics yet? What happened to those SUN
machines we played with 2 or 3 months ago?

> Hi all,
> 
> Apparently this open letter has not been mentioned on many UK lists yet, so I
> thought it might be worth posting it here, so people are aware of its
> existence.
> 
> The original link is:
> 
> http://www.linux.org.uk/open.l.html
> 
> - ----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
> 
> Subject: [Leicester] Open Letter from Alan Cox
> Date: Monday 31 May 2004 15:17
> From: Clive Jones <clive at tux-it.co.uk>
> To: Leicester Linux User Group Mailing List <leicester at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> 
> - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> An Open Letter On Software Patents and EU Election
> 
> "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do
> it."
> - - -- Gandhi
> 
> Most of the time the ability to influence Politicians is remarkably limited.
> They ignore letters, and often all the major parties reflect only large
> proprietary interests, ensuring you get CDs that won't play in a car,
> arrested for helping the blind read protected ebooks and prevented from
> writing and using software by the patent lobby, intent on locking up
> technical creativity the same way the soviets locked up the typewriter.
> 
> In about a week you get an opportunity to send the EU politicians a message
> they cannot ignore - but sadly only 18% of UK citizens will bother to do so.
> While most British people would like to ignore the EU, the simple fact is
> that it is the EU that passed the EUCD, it is the EU that can fight software
> patents and it is the EU that is currently working to create even more
> draconian "intellectual property rights" laws.
> 
> This letter is aimed at the other 82% of hackers, open source enthusiasts, or
> just people who want the rights to use CD's they paid for fairly and
> honestly. That little piece of cardboard is your chance to call the EU to
> account, and thanks to the EU voting system you can make a difference, in
> fact you count five fold due to the expected low turnout.
> 
> There are two parties that are fundmanetally opposed to things like Software
> Patents.The Green-EFA alliance (Green Party, Plaid Cymru and friends) have
> been fighting the patent fight from the beginning including organising events
> in Brussels, as well as fighting to make the EU more democratic (to stop
> unelected Beaurocrats overturning the will of the parliament). The UKIP (UK
> Independance Party) is opposed on the ground that EU legislation like
> software patents clogs up British business and harms Britain as a sovereign
> nation. Unlike our parliamentary elections the EU voting system means it is
> not a two horse race.
> 
> To defeat software patents now needs an absolute majority in the parliament.
> That is going to be hard to achieve, but you get to adjust the make up of the
> parliament, and every vote is going to count.
> 
> Please, if you were not going to vote, either vote for the UKIP or Green-EFA
> alliance members. Ideally pick the one of the two that is most likely to win
> in your area, but if you have philosophical reasons for favouring one of the
> two (such as a dislike of the EU) please go vote for the one you favour.
> These are the people who will have to decide how to fix the EUCD, these are
> the people who will have to decide on Software Patents. Whether you believe
> in the EU or not, the people you vote for (or the pro patent, pro DRM people
> who will get in by default if you do not vote) will dictate your future
> rights.
> 
> The turnout in the UK is expected to be 18%. That favours anyone who can
> mobilize and get out and vote. It's a one off opportunity to kick the
> pro-patent lobby somewhere that hurts.
> 
> Vote, get your friends and families to vote, get LUGs to vote en-masse. Call
> out the troops - it's payback time...
> 
> 
> Alan Cox



	
	
		
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