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On Monday 07 March 2005 12:26 pm, Pete Hatton wrote:
Quoting Neil Williams <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:7 March 2005 -- The Council Presidency today declared the software agreement of 18 May 2004 to have been adopted, in violation of the procedural rules and in spite of the evident lack of a qualified [etc...etc...snipped]Can I make a suggestion. Can we have a seperate mailing list for discussion and news on software patents. I really do not think this falls under mission statement for the DCLUG (Or DCGLUG) at http://www.dclug.org.uk/linux_adm/mission.html
On the contrary, software patents threaten the future of all free software and open source software as well as the future of small software houses producing proprietary software. If we cannot discuss topics that threaten to remove the software we are trying so hard to promote, why are we promoting free software? In the past we've discussed SCO and other wider topics. Patents threaten the fundamental freedoms of GNU/Linux: 4. Freedom to improve the program and redistribute the changed version to the community. It is expressly included in our mission statement. If software patents are enforceable in the UK, we face significant problems in solving problems. "simplify value-added technology in order to solve Linux problems." Software patents will complicate that technology, make our mission *more* difficult, even impossible in certain areas. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.dcglug.org.uk/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/isbnsearch/ http://www.neil.williamsleesmill.me.uk/ http://www.biglumber.com/x/web?qs=0x8801094A28BCB3E3
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