I just wondered how many people were aware of two recent threats to free software.
1. W3C "royalty freee" patent policy proposals. -------------------------------------------- The proposed policy permits W3C members to commit their patent claims "royalty-free" for use by implementers of the standard, but with "field of use" restrictions that would be incompatible with section 7 of the GNU General Public License. Such "field of use" restrictions, in other words, would prevent implementation of W3C standards as Free Software.
Details at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/w3c-patent.html. Comments to W3C must reach www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org by Tuesday 31 December 2002.
2. EU plans to legalise software patents in Europe. ------------------------------------------------ The proposal was drafted by the Business Software Alliance, a US-based group dominated by Microsoft, in cooperation with the European Commission. AFAIK it is still under discussion by the European Comission. It seems to pose a threat to free software and the Internet.
Details and petition at http://petition.eurolinux.org/index.html
If you wish to email any MEP(s) (there are 8 for the Eastern Region), you can find their email addresses at http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm
This all seems very worrying. Does anyone have any more up-to-date knowledge of these issues?
Cheers,
Chris.