[Gllug] Stopping Software Patents

Sun Jan 18 15:40:21 UTC 2009

Apologies for the cross post - however I believe that this is a campaign that
most members of GLLUG will sympathise with.

If you have not heard of it: please visit the web site and sign the petition
(takes 2 minutes).

----- Forwarded message from "FFII e. V." <stopsoftwarepatents at ffii.org> -----

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:57:42 +0100
From: FFII e.V. <stopsoftwarepatents at ffii.org>
Subject: Stopping Software Patents - let us make a difference in 2009
To: addw at phcomp.co.uk

Dear alain d d WILLIAMS,

we are contacting you as a signed supporter of the FFII. We highlight
recent developments and ask you to endorse a new European petition at

            http://stopsoftwarepatents.eu/

If you do not want to receive infrequent updates from the FFII about
crucial developments per email anymore, you can simply change your
user/member status any time with your user-id williamd at
https://aktiv.ffii.org

-------------------- 2009 software patent petition --------------------

Members of our community have once again developed a European petition
to overcome the software patent crisis at

            http://stopsoftwarepatents.eu/

as a contribution to the European Year of Creativity and Innovation
2009. The situation for software innovators remains cumbersome. European
courts sometimes accept the validity of granted software patents. The
campaign asks for clarifications to substantive patent law.

A worldwide campaign site http://stopsoftwarepatents.org/ is also
underway. Please contribute to our mailing list for software patents:
https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/softwarepatents

----------- Center Left lost trust in Commissioner McCreevy -----------

Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy was a key defender of the
software patent directive. Recently the PES group wrote an angry letter
to Commission President Barroso because of McCreevy's alleged inadequate
response to the financial crisis:

"This is too much. Commissioner McCreevy’s actions demonstrate a total
absence of respect for the European Parliament, and appear to be more
appropriate for a paid lobbyist of the finance industry than a European
Commissioner.[..] We have lost trust and confidence in Commissioner
McCreevy."
http://www.pes.org/downloads/Letter_to_JMBarroso-16Dec08_EN.pdf

----------------------- Brimelow's Referral ---------------------------

The European Patent Office moves towards a decision on its software
patent granting practice. EPO President Brimelow has asked the Enlarged
Board of Appeal (EBoA) to provide 'recommendations' concerning the
crucial matter of technical character for the patentability of software.
http://tinyurl.com/brimelow-referral

------------------------ Czech Presidency -----------------------------

The Presidency of the European Council rotated to the Czech Republic,
which announced to prioritize on the community patent and the European
central patent court.
http://www.eu2009.cz/scripts/file.php?id=6226&down=yes

Watch the presentation of our new President Benjamin Henrion at the
25C3 conference about "Software Patents in Europe via the case law of a
Central Court"
http://www.slideshare.net/zoobab/stop-software-patents-25c3-presentation
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=SyC4nktJQbQ

------------------------ UK Symbian Case ------------------------------

The UK-based company Symbian Ltd. appealed a decision which was against
accepting the validity of one of its software related patent
applications - which is about a dynamic linking at software compilation
time. Mr Justice Patten ruled that the UKIPO was wrong rejecting it. The
ruling of Mr Justice Patten can be read at
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2008/1066.html

The UKIPO has already updated its practice notes regarding software
patents:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/pro-types/pro-patent/p-law/p-pn/p-pn-computer.htm

----------------------------- ACTA ------------------------------------

In 2008 the EU Commission started negotiations on an
"Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" (ACTA) with major trading
partners. ACTA's procedural secrecy fuels concerns that the agreement
may give 'patent trolls' the means to extort companies, and mandate
surveillance of communication over the net. The FFII tries to formally
obtain undisclosed documents. 

Our latest press releases http://tinyurl.com/7g4lyn and others are found
on http://press.ffii.org/ We send press releases always to a dedicated
distribution list you can join at 
http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news

-------- Agreement between Microsoft and the Greek government ---------

On February 2006, the Greek government and Microsoft announced a
strategic partnership agreement. At least 6 questions by the parliament
remained unanswered by the government. On January 2008, the government
passed the law. The FFII Greece and the Hellenic Linux Users Group filed
a complaint to the European Commission, which is still under
investigation. See the full story at
http://www.ffii.gr/ms-gov-agreement-en

------------------------ European Disney Act --------------------------

The European Commission proposed to retroactively extend the copyright
protection for recordings from 50 to 95 years.  The European Parliament
discusses the proposal under Rapporteur Brian Crowley
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/file.jsp?id=5667672

The record industry supports the proposal but a British campaign finds
it counterproductive:

      http://www.openrightsgroup.org/

Petition: http://www.soundcopyright.eu/petition

Event in Brussels (27.1.2009): http://soundcopyright.eventbrite.com/

Entertaining video: How copyright term extention actually works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kijON_XODUk

The FFII General Assembly hold the view that copyright is an effective
and accurate form of ownership for software, though the life+70 duration
was considered far too long for software. The GA 2008 wants the
association to take a strong stance against any attempt to use author's
rights to attack the infrastructure of the net.

------------------- SPLT (Substantive Patent Law Treaty) --------------

For years there have been WIPO deliberations for harmonization of
substantive patent law. It was reaffirmed in the 2008 Japan G8 meeting:
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/summit/2008/doc/doc080709_01_en.html
    "reaffirm the importance of global patent harmonization
    and expanding international patent collaboration, including
    accelerated discussions on the Substantive Patent Law Treaty;"

The FFII has observer status at WIPO and is monitoring these
developments.

------------------------ FFII mailing list reform ---------------------

The FFII has the fame to comprise key technologists from all across
Europe but administrate an idiosyncratic mailing list infrastructure. We
have seen a need to cut our wild grown lists and have added new thematic
open mailing lists:

* Software Patenting:
https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/softwarepatents/

* Biopatenting:
https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/biopatents/

* Transparency and Access to Public Documents
https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/transparency/

* Free and Open Source Software
https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/floss/

* Network Regulation and Filtering:
https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/netreg/

* Privacy and Data Retention
https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/privacy/

* SaaS, TIO and the Cloud
https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/tio/

Please join the lists you are interested in and contribute!

--------------------------------- Quote -------------------------------

"The current 'patent thicket,' in which anyone who writes a successful
software programme is sued for alleged patent infringement, highlights
the current IP system’s failure to encourage innovation"
- Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Laureate in Economics)
  http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1129

---------------------------- About the FFII ---------------------------

The FFII is a not-for-profit association active in over fifty countries,
dedicated to the development of information goods for the public
benefit, based on copyright, free competition, and open standards. More
than 850 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted
the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning
exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing.

----------------------- How to support the FFII  ----------------------

The FFII is divided in working groups. We welcome new active people in
our working groups which are listed at
https://action.ffii.org

If you consider our work important but you are not able to help
actively, you can become a passive sustaining member of the FFII,
starting at 15 EUR per year. See
http://action.ffii.org/member_application

Donations are also welcome. See https://ffii.org/Donations

------------------------- How to contact us  --------------------------

FFII e.V.
Blutenburgstr. 17
80636 Munich
Germany

https://www.ffii.org

office at ffii.org

Tel. +49 30 417 22 597
Fax: +49 30 417 22 597
IRC: #bxl-ffii @ irc.freenode.net
Blogs: http://planet.ffii.org/

Tax number: 143 / 843 / 17600 at the German tax office in Munich.
IBAN: DE78701500000031112097, SWIFT/BIC: SSKMDEMM

--
Yours sincerely,
    Ivan F. Villanueva B.
    on behalf of the FFII e.V.

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Alain Williams
Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information: http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php
Past chairman of UKUUG: http://www.ukuug.org/
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
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