begin oe_protect.scr
nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>
> BearItAll wrote:
>> nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>>
>> > Quote:
>> > ----------
>> > US courts are endangering the very existence of free and open source
>> > software, according to a leading digital rights pressure group...
>> >
>> > The Federal Court of Appeals has recently used a "suggestion test" to
>> > determine whether or not a patent is "obvious". The EFF argues that the
>> > test forces those opposing a patent's grant to produce documents
>> > proving that even the most obvious improvement has been suggested
>> > before....
>> >
>> > "In the case of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects, the
>> > suggestion test has especially pernicious effects," it says. "Because
>> > [open source] collaborations are forged primarily through community
>> > rather than capital investment, many FOSS projects lack the funding to
>> > pay patent counsel, much less afford litigation. Thus, the normal costs
>> > of doing business in the patent-laden world of information technology
>> > - opinion letters, litigation, etc. - are exponentially detrimental
>> > for FOSS."
>> > -------------
>> > End quote
>> >
>> > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/29/oss_under_pressure/
>>
>> This Patent trolling is going on only in America where the trolls are
>> claiming patents on software and ideas that weren't created in America at
>> all.
>>
>> American law has made it possible for Americans to steal from every other
>> country in the world, this stuff doesn't belong to them so they have no
>> right to claim it as theirs, it is stealing.
>>
>> I'm glad the EU are not willing to put up with this, nor recognise many of
>> these patents. So actually genuine patents are likely to be blocked in the
>> same batchs as the fake ones.
>
> I'd feel encouraged if I thought the EU or the rest of the world could
> put a stop to this patent nonsense. But the US has managed to convince
> most of the rest of the world to go along with DRM (although there may
> be a mini-revolt in Sweden going on right now). They also mostly
> succeeded in preventing the rest of the world from circumventing US
> drug patents (on AIDS drugs, etc), with Brazil and India putting up
> some resistance. As they say, we have ways of making you comply.
>
> Speaking of patents, there is the case of the seed stock that dies
> after one generation, forcing farmers to purchase more from Montsanto.
> This is called "protecting Montsanto's intellectual property." This is
> creating heaps of good will around the world. It's a biological
> equivalent of what the RIAA and BSA would like to with CDs and software.
>
I've been ever amused by the Monsanto approach, they're so overt about
what they do that they even call their genetically-modified seeds
"roundup-ready"; which might not mean much until you find out that
their nastiest, most poisonous, virulent and most dangerous weedkiller
is called, wait for it.... "roundup". They are a foul organisation,
which has, thankfully, so far, been kept out of the UK, mainly by the
liberal lobby, who are trying to protect our ecosystem.
The patent situation in the EU is still good, and I hope it will remain
that way. Unfortunately, many of the world's largest patent holders are
EU based (liek drugs companies, for example), so there's a strong lobby
to continue to extend the patent system, as large businesses continue to
believe (quite wrongly) that it's in their interests.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
If you notice that a person is deceiving you, they must not be
deceiving you very well.
|
|
