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Re: [LUG] Council Presidency "Adopts" Software Patent Agreement

 

On Mon,  7 Mar 2005 12:26:08 +0000, Pete Hatton <pete@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 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

I beg to differ - software patents have a huge impact on all
programmers and particularly open source programmers (and users)
because the source (and therefore techniques which may be patented) is
available.

If you work in IT and aren't deeply worried about the whole software
patent debacle then you have your head in the sand - there has already
been one big news story of an EPO software patent that will cost the
stock trading software makers and users a fortune and more are lining
up including one that could affect your usage of iTunes and other
software.

This is all the more relevent on a free software list as software
patents are exactly against what we want and stand for.

A.

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