[linux-audio-announce] The AGNULA project protests against software patents

[The AGNULA team]

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     [Sorry for cross-posting.  Feel free to forward around]

Florence, 12 May 2004

+++ THE AGNULA PROJECT PROTESTS AGAINST SOFTWARE PATENTS

In September 2003,  the European Parliament  had voted to maintain and
reinforce  the exclusion    of  software and  business   methods  from
patentability.  The AGNULA project  will "black-out" the home pages of
its sites (`www.agnula.org',  `devel.agnula.org',  `muzik.agnula.org')
to  strongly   protests against this  act   of disrespect  towards the
European Parliament - which is directly elected by european citizens -
and against patents on software, data formats and abstract ideas.  

+++

In  September 2003, the European Parliament  had voted to maintain and
reinforce  the  exclusion of   software   and  business  methods  from
patentability.  On May 5 2004,  the Irish Presidency managed to secure
a qualified  majority for a  counter-proposal  to the software patents
directive, with only a few countries - including Belgium and Germany -
showing resistance.   This proposal  discards all  limiting amendments
from the  European Parliament, reinstates  the  laxist provisions from
the Commission,  adding direct  patentability  of data  structures and
process descriptions as icing on the cake.

The  AGNULA project strongly  protests against  this act of disrespect
towards the   European  Parliament -  which  is  directly   elected by
european citizens - and against patents on  software, data formats and
abstract ideas.

The  AGNULA  project fully    supports   the Foundation  for   a  Free
Information Infrastructure  (FFII   [0]) and  all  other  groups that,
throughout Europe  and the  rest  of the  world, are fighting  against
patentability software and abstract ideas.

You can  find further   information on why   patents on  software  and
abstract ideas are a very  bad thing (not only  for Libre Software but
for all software creators) here:

http://swpat.ffii.org/
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/swpat/letter-20040510.en.html

Please support our protest by obscuring your pages and/or helping FFII
in their struggle.  You can find ways to do it here:

http://www.ffii.org/ffii-cgi/aktiv?f=euparl&l=en

+++

About AGNULA:   Agnula (acronym for   A  GNU/Linux Audio distribution,
pronounced with a strong  g) is  the name of   a project funded  until
April  2004  by    the   European  Commission   (number  of  contract:
IST-2001-34879; key action IV.3.3, Free Software: towards the critical
mass).  After the end of the funded period,  AGNULA is continuing as a
volunteer   based project,  aiming  to  spread Libre  Software in  the
professional audio/video arena.

Best regards,

--
The AGNULA Team                                   info at agnula.org        
Our mailing lists:                        http://lists.agnula.org/
Our web site:                               http://www.agnula.org/
"There's no free expression without control on the tools you use"
 
[0] http://www.ffii.org/