[Westwales] Sites are dropping like flies

[Mark Illsley]

I dont know if anyone has noticed but checkout the mplayer site and also 
  the amsn site.  They have BOTH been "CLOSED DOWN"

<quote>
	Closed for patent infringement
This site has been shut down because of numerous patent violations in 
AMSN/Mplayer. Other free software applications are next.

The European commission has just passed its directive on software 
patents, violating democratic rules and procedures to the sole benefit 
of big non-European corporation and Ireland and to the detriment of 
small and medium sized businesses (which comprise 99% of the European 
software industry) and free software.

The European parliament will now be taking the last stand against 
software patents in a voting for which an absolute majority is needed. 
Such a majority is hard to come by in a parliament with a low attendance 
level.

But not all is lost yet as long as you decide it is time to make a 
difference and take action. This is our last opportunity to fend off 
software patents worldwide, there will be no second chance for the 
foreseeable future. Contact your local EU representatives and educate 
them why software patents are bad and why they must attend that 
parliament session to vote against them. For in-depth information and 
starting points to get active visit software patent page of the FFII 
(Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure) and 
NoSoftwarePatents.com.

Wish us luck, we will need it.

</quote>


I dont know if there are any other sites that have been taken down but i 
would not be surprised.  WTF is going on?????


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