[oclug] Ouch (MS word processing patent)

[linuxstuff]

Software patents are a good idea, it's the Big fish getting bigger,
taking over the software industries with the blessing of politicians
receiving funding and newspaper receiving advertising. Neither of which
will bite the hand that feeds them.

Some of you may remember my email before the elections, where the
Liberals where going to change the P2P download laws. 

If your are interested in reading MS strategies in EU on patents issue,
check this link

http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/32951/index.html

Paul Godin

On Tue, 2005-03-15 at 15:36 -0500, Robert Brockway wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Mar 2005, Sean Hammond wrote:
> 
> > What I'm really starting to wonder is where this is all going.
> 
> It is an interesting question.
> 
> I try to point out to non-techs that with the reliance of our society of 
> computers any attempt to control the computing industry has the potential 
> for a major impact on freedom in general.  As I've noted before, I think 
> our society is playing with fire.
> 
> > It seems there is so much corruption around and so many corporations
> > working on patent applications that the legalisation of unlimited
> > patentability is not likely to be stopped. Against all democratic
> > practice the EU now looks like it's going to legalise idea patents.
> > Official democratic means seem more and more useless against this
> > attack.
> 
> Indeed.  In time I expect the general public to become more aware of these 
> issues, especially then they get impacted directly.
> 
> > But will people actually allow this to go as far as it could? Will we
> 
> I don't know.  As far as I'm concerned personal freedom is under attack 
> from several fronts right now, to a degree that has not happened for a 
> long time.
> 
> > end up in a situation where you can't legally write programs unless
> > you work for Microsoft etc? Where all desktop OS's are outlawed except
> > Windows? Or will people just decide not to obey laws like this?
> 
> Therein is the civil disobedience.
> 
> > I don't think large scale civil disobedience is likely, since it's a
> 
> It depends on how many people feel strongly about the problem, or are even 
> aware of it.
> 
> I have a lasez-faire attitude though - all we can do is try to warn people 
> about the danger.  If they go ahead and hand their freedom over without a 
> fight anyway they can't say they weren't warned.  Unfortunately we get 
> dragged down as well.  Still, my conscience will be clear.
> 
> > technical issue known only to technical people. It's not easy to
> > motivate a large base of popular support around this. The upside of it
> 
> Then they were never destined to be free anyway.  Sometimes it is 
> necessary to fight for freedom, which is what I firmly believe this is all 
> about in the end.
> 
> Rob
> 
> -- 
> Robert Brockway B.Sc.
> Senior Technical Consultant, OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.
> Phone: 416-669-3073 Email: rbrockway at opentrend.net http://www.opentrend.net
> OpenTrend Solutions: Reliable, secure solutions to real world problems.
> Contributing Member of Software in the Public Interest (http://www.spi-inc.org)