| |||||||||||
Bringing the DMCA and software patents to Australia
Linux Australia has published a lengthy position
paper on the free software implications of the recently negotiated
"free trade agreement" (FTA) with the
United States. This agreement uses the trade treaty approach to bring
American-style anti-circumvention and software patents to Australia. Linux
Australia is now working to prevent
the adoption of the FTA, and is looking for help. Among other things,
there is an online
petition to be signed, but the first priority for Australians is
probably to contact their members of Parliament. See the Linux Australia FTA page for
more information.
(Log in to post comments)
Bringing the DMCA and software patents to Australia Posted Nov 18, 2004 11:00 UTC (Thu) by APERFECTPC (guest, #26091) [Link] I don't think we should oppose the Free Trade Agreement but we should definitely oppose the concept of Patenting Software. It would be better if we left the matter of how the FTA and this matter may be separated to our political representatives. That's what we appointed them for.
The matter of patenting software is wrong. King James invented the concept of letters patent to encourage tradesmen and artisans to reveal their art. His intention in doing this was to advance society. Software is not in the same league philosophically as the manual or scientific/engineering art and it is not in the interests of the advancement of society that software be patented.
Kevin Loughrey
|
|||||||||||