[ Date Index ][
Thread Index ]
[ <= Previous by date /
thread ]
[ Next by date /
thread => ]
-Persecution to a Way of Life- Sending emails off to people may not make much of an impression. However. If a group of us, just 4 or 5 (or 20, or the thousands that this effects) turned up to meet various MEPs, MPs etc, and were actually able to talk to them face to face about _how our way of life is threatened_ this may make for a greater impact. To clarify what I mean by a threatened way of life: - A vast majority of what our community does and believes in involves free GNU software created by the community - A patent grants monopoly to a given party. This was originally intended to reward a company. However, because it costs money to buy a patent charities and non-profit competition is unfairly descriminated against. This is crucial since non-profit software is the driving force behind the internet - If a patent is granted on software to speak a webpage out loud, free software is inhibited from created a free alternative. The result is economic and cultural damage - Now, if you think we don't matter, think again; we (geeks sharing knowledge uninhibited by patents) made the internet and the computer. The vast majority of the internet still runs on the software we created that would not be possible with the existance of patents ( http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html ) I, as a consumer of free software feel that my way of life would be damaged by patents; my freedom over my computer, my freedom of speech. Programmers will be even more damaged. Because I (and others) can prove that free software is (to some of us) the most defining feature of our lives and what we are (the word geek or nerd is democratic proof of this), I feel there is a justifyable case to bring this to the European Court of Justice. However, this is only relevent to those emersed in free software; such as Linus Torvalds and not myself. In addition the strong beliefs in the community; in sharing of information and freedom of speech ideals is also under persecuction. Many thanks for your consideration. ----------------------------------------- This email was sent using FREE Catholic Online Webmail! http://webmail.catholic.org/ -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.