Re: comments: Re: [LUG] Open Source and Patents First Draft

[Rick Timmis <rick@xxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for that Adrian

There are so many strong comments in your email, I have just appended 
the whole thing to the document for inclusion into the text later

Thanks Rick

I have mailed you what there is now off list.

If anyone else wants a copy let me know, although it needs work now to 
peice it all together. Perhaps Keith would like to have a crack at it

Thanks Rick

Adrian Midgley wrote:

> EU/EC and national policy
> -------------------------------------
> In several areas the European Commission has promoted the use of 
> Open Source software, and the development by Open SOurce 
> methodologies, most notably in the field of healthcare.
>
> This accords well with several nations' policies of preferring 
> an Open Source solution to one which is encumbered, at present 
> by proprietary rights and non-publication of the source code, 
> but potentially by the inclusion of patented elements used to 
> lock public services into a particualar company's product.  
>
> To the extent which extension or continuance of patentability of 
> software components impeded this, such an extension would be 
> contrary to that public policy and to the public interest which 
> the policies serve.
>
> References
>
> EC OSS in health
> SPIRIT
> http://www.euspirit.org/zope/en/linkxchg/index_html
>
> Munich city government IT procurement
> http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/newswire/2003/05/28/rtr984204.html
>
>
> <section ends>
>
>
>
>  
>
> > > And possibly the public sector as distinct from corporate
> > > industry (whose needs or wishes may include selling the same
> > > thing every three years to teh public secotr <g>)
> > >      
> > Unsure how this fits in.
> >    
>
> I mean to distinguish a public sector such as healthcare or 
> local government from industry and commercial services.
>
>
> The snide comment could best be left out, but ...
>
> Part of Microsoft's success comes from their providing the 
> channel, their partners and resellers, with a steady churn.  
> THis keeps the training firms for instance in work on a 3 year 
> cycle, paying upstream to be trained themselves, and then 
> charging downstream to teach how to do all the same things with 
> the new version of MS' office suite or GUI.  
>
> (You have to move things around a bit, in ways that might 
> otherwise appear not to have any clear reason, to convince 
> people there is stuff to teach)
>
> But it is not necessarily so much in the interest of the 
> end-user, or the company that employs the end-user.
>
>
>
>
>  
>
> > > ^^^^^^ exploited, seized entered grasped serviced rather than
> > > capitalised (my preference rather than any rule)
> > >      
> > Mmm Usure this doc must not ever appear to attack!
> >    
>
> serviced then, or served.
>
>
>
> The technologies underlying the Internet have arisen and been 
> developed in an Open Source fashion.
>
> The internet has become an everyday part of our lives and is now 
> an important aspect of business and public life {around the 
> globe| throughout the EU and its major trading partners.}
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>
> > > ^^^ it is a grassroots movement and activity
> > >      
> > Unclear as to your meaning here.
> >    
>
> Politicians like, or pay attention to, grass-roots movements.
> They are different from organised commercial or political 
> lobbies, not least in the quality of lunches.
>
>
>  


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