[Wylug-discuss] EU Software patents protest

[Dave Fisher]

On Mon, May 10, 2004 at 10:26:52AM +0100, Phil Driscoll wrote:
> Perhaps we should consider replaing the WYLUG homepage with a protest page?
> I'm sure there are WYLUG members with their own websites, and ownership or
> influence over websites which have a large readership, who might be able to
> help make a difference with this campaign.

While I support the campaign's objectives, I don't really understand the
tactics.

How does shutting down sources of open source information, including
anti-patents sites, actually further the cause?

Obviously self-mutilation (e.g. hunger strikes) can be a useful tactic,
but it usually works by focusing latent support on the fate of one or two
very famous victims (Ghandi springs to mind).  Perhaps I'm being
blinkered, but I can't see thousands of shut down OSS sites being of
much concern to anyone but their own users.  I can't even see it being
much of a story for lazy journalists with column inches to fill.

I am afraid this tactic feels very much like the kind of guesture
politics that is quite popular (and occasionally works) in traditional
world of continental catholic politics, but cuts no mustard in our
current world of anglo-saxon, neo-liberal hegemony.

The European Council is, in effect, a meeting of EU Prime Ministers. The
question to answer is, therefore, how is shutting down OSS sites likely
to change Tony Blair's mind?  As I say, I may have missed something
here, but the answer to that question is unclear to me right now.

Dave