From kde-artists Tue Jul 27 11:11:01 2004 From: Ante Wessels Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 11:11:01 +0000 To: kde-artists Subject: K-ARTIST: KDE can help FFII fight threat software patents Message-Id: <200407271311.01444.vitanova2 () softhome ! net> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-artists&m=109092699929188 Hi all, As we all know, softwarepatents can hurt open source projects enormously. If you only have 20 seconds, http://webshop.ffii.org will convince you. About anything can be patented. Open Source projects do not have the resources to fight softwarepatent infringement claims. One absurd claim can kill a project. KDE makes a wonderful product. KDE has come so far, it is intolerable to see it threatened. The time has come to defend what this community has made. Through my involvement with KDE I ended up at the FFII nl. The FFII has had a major influence on the European Parliament. The influence on the Council of Ministers was less strong, may 18 it reached a political agreement pro softwarepatents. Still, that first round isn't over. The vote has to be formalized. In the Netherlands a motion was adopted, urging the minister to withdraw the vote. In Germany, the Deutsche Bank has published a report that says softwarepatents are bad for innovation, they ask the government to oppose softwarepatents. More things will happen. These things often happen at the national level. The coming months will be crucial. In my opinion, prior to the Council meeting in which the vote will be formalized, the FFII needs to be a fast moving organisation that can get a message from the center to all the capitals. Unfortunately, the FFII isn't as strong in some countries as it is in others. KDE is better localized in Europe. And now, well, I have a Dream. My dream is that the FFII can sometimes tap into some of that (wo)manpower KDE has in Europe. Sometimes texts need to be translated, a letter to a parliament send. It would be great if some KDE contributors and users would join the national lists of the FFII: http://swpat.ffii.org/group/todo/ , pl-parl, fr-parl, etc. It would be great if the aKademy would pay attention to softwarepatents. "Everything of worth is vulnerable" the Dutch poet Lucebert wrote. IMHO, we have to stand up to defend it. It may be one of the last summers we can enjoy KDE as it is. Why not issue a KDE call to arms? If the Deutsche Bank moves, KDE can march. The only thing we have to fear is the future, if we do not shape it ourselves. Together we can do it, Ante http://webshop.ffii.org http://swpat.ffii.org/group/todo/ http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-PROD/PROD0000000000175949.pdf ****** The most up to date info for kde artists can be found at the wiki: http://wiki.kdenews.org/tiki-index.php?page=KDE+Artists old: http://kde.ground.cz/tiki-index.php?page=KDE+Artists Scripts for kde artists, like svg2png4kde, add border, add drop shadow, change filename, file conversion: http://home.uwnet.nl/~vita/linux/index.html Web course italian, poem generator, poetry, stories and visual art: http://home.uwnet.nl/~vita _______________________________________________ kde-artists mailing list kde-artists@mail.kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-artists